by Stanley Gray
Delilah looked beautiful when she was vulnerable. Tom resisted the urge to bend forward and kiss her on the tip of the nose. She stared vacantly forward. She didn’t seem to comprehend much about anything that was going on. Somewhere, buried deep inside of her, was the knowledge that she trusted Tom. That she felt affection for him. After the brief exchange at the beginning, she had returned to… a vacuous state.
Tom grunted. He looked down to make sure the front door to the unit was still ajar. He smiled sharkishly. It was. The corpse of his first victim helped hold it open. Glancing up, he saw words stenciled in with paint on the white bricks above the door. They said: Unit 9.
Turning around, he scanned the large room. He’d freed only a smattering of people, but it felt… different. He needed to get out of there.
Most of the people possessed visible rashes and welts. Red spots marred the skin of most of the people in Unit 9. Some of them wore what appeared to be patches. Others had clear markings where they’d been injected multiple times. There were people missing eyes, ears, limbs, and a few dead bodies without skin at all.
Tom fought the urge to vomit.
The reporter’s instincts wanted him to take it all in. To use the sense to record the experience for posterity. But the gestalt proved too much. It was unbearable. Just a glimpse of the horrors could drive one mad. Yet Tom forced himself to look. Not because he wanted to. Not because he delighted in despair. But because he needed a way out.
He moved around, pushing one zombie-like humanoid down to the ground as he did so. He scanned the faces of the various creatures, mere husks of their former selves, affixed to the walls like macabre ornaments. Finally, he saw Mike. He hastily helped the man down, unlocked his shackles and handcuffs. Mike didn’t seem to have many physical problems. A few rashes near his neck, which was different than most of the others Tom had observed. But, he possessed all of his major limbs, which seemed like silver lining under the circumstances.
“Mike!” Tom said.
Mike blinked, but didn’t do much else. He stood there, upright, but other than that, he seemed useless.
“Mike!” Tom tried it again.
CRASH!
Tom jumped. He looked around. He realized he’d dropped the leg shank. He plucked the piece of sharpened metal from his waist band. Looking up, he almost started the hysterical laughter again. He saw his old cell mate, missing chunks of flesh, stumbling out of the room Tom had occupied for some undefined period, and which he had vacated not long ago.
Turning, Tom saw that one of the people he’d freed had thrown himself through the very thick glass of the front door.
“Shit.” Tom said.
The guards would be coming soon. He wasn’t sure how they hadn’t descended already. Security cameras covered with blood? Nope. Guard unresponsive and laying in an unmoving mass in the open doorway? Nope. Tom wondered if maybe the people had relied a little too much on the power of whatever pharmacological agents they’d deployed.
“Mike, we have to go, man. We have to go now.” Tom said.
A few of the other people Tom had freed were now running in circles. One punched the face of a person chained to the wall. A skinny man with long hair ran up to the top of tier, and launched himself head-first over the railing, landing on the cement with a heavy thud. Brains splattered the nearby table.
Tom took one of Mike’s hands forcefully. He dragged him forward. “Delilah.” he said.
Thankfully she responded. She followed him, though she shuffled slowly. Someone ran up towards her, flailing its arms and screeching. Tom stepped in front of the hysterical person, and looked directly into the rabid, genderless person’s blue eyes. Madness reigned in those eyes. The person was not a person. Yet it rushed towards him. Tom thrust the make-shift knife into the zombie’s face. He left it there.
“Come on!” he yelled. He grabbed Mike’s hand again and led him. They walked out of the unit.
The dead guy hanging half-way through the glass seemed to twitch a bit as they retreated.
Chapter 26
“A cannibal, a gay painter, and a black lady with one arm walk into a bar…”
Tom stopped. He heard the words from behind him. He turned. He clenched one fist. Staring menacingly into the brown, bespectacled eyes of a lithe, lean brown-skinned man, he waited.
Sirens began to blare. After all of the screams and the horrors he’d already endured, Tom had thought he could get past anything. That he could block out any sight, stench, or sound. But he was wrong. That ear-shattering shriek shook him to the core. He resisted the urge to put his hands over his ears and collapse to the floor.
The speaker walked forward. Instead of acting aggressively, he held out a hand. Tom, shaking, his tympanum ringing, looked down for several moments. He honestly wasn’t sure how to react. Finally, after staring dumbly vacantly for several moments, an interminable period when one is in hell, Tom shrugged and took the hand. He shook it.
“My name is Octavio Ramirez. I’m assuming you wanted to escape Unit 9?” he said. The man spoke calmly, despite the sound.
“Who…who the fuck are you? What are you?” Tom asked.
“Doctor. Demon. Guardian angel. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.” Octavio looked towards the unit. The freed individuals were savagely attacking the humans chained to the walls. “We really must hurry. Perhaps we can talk later. I’m sure you don’t want to stay and discuss things with the cell mate whose flesh you ate.” Octavio said.
“Wait. How did you know that?” Tom asked.
“Cameras. Hidden cameras. We were looking for you. Not you, specifically, of course. Just that one anomaly who get recover.”
“Okay. Well, you fucking found me.” Tom said.
Octavio chuckled. “Yes. Unfortunately.” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tom asked.
“Well, it seems some of the staff here…they have been infected. So, we now have to…well, we need to go. I’m leaving. You can come with me. Or stay here. Your choice.”
“Why…would you just let me leave?” Tom asked.
“Another experiment. I probably won’t live to observe the data, but… call it liberal guilt. Call it whatever you want. I’m leaving. Before those… people come out here and get me.”
Octavio began walking down the long hallway.
“Wait!” Tom said.
He rushed after the man. Delilah followed. Mike, however, did not. Tom grunted and rushed back to grab the man’s hand.
“Where are we going after this?” Tom asked.
“To blow up a factory.” Octavio said over his shoulder.
“Why in the hell would you do that?” Tom wondered aloud.
“To conceal evidence. Maybe bad stuff will happen. I think it will. Maybe it won’t. If it doesn’t, then I am not in much trouble. The only people who know about what I’ve done are either dead, dying, or are you three. I really only have to worry about you. No one would believe you. You’re the discredited reporter who shoots up art galleries. If I had to worry about you, I’d kill you.” Octavio said.
And so it was that Tom began his journey into a new life.
Epilogue
Dear Mom:
I wanted to write to you to say I love you. That is a lie. I’m sorry. I wanted to write to you to apologize. The searing guilt I feel rends my soul.
I don’t even know if I’m human anymore. In the past few weeks, I have seen and done things…
The world will devolve into chaos. Perhaps it is better this way. I do love you. I guess I did sit down to compose this letter with that intent- to tell you one last time how much you mean to me. Hopefully this reaches you in time. The collapse is imminent.
I learned some secrets about the people controlling our society. Secrets they seemed willing to destroy themselves to keep. Perhaps they simply do not wish to be confronted with evidence of their own crimes- they may have actually succeeded in deluding themselves into believing the lie that they are good, decent people.
If this reaches you in time, if you wish to continue on, please go stock up on things like water and canned food, fuel, et cetera. Get lots of ammunition. Lots.
I will be headed to El Paso to finish up some business with a man who stole something from me.
Please do not think I am crazy. It is true I am still malnourished, and under the influence of drugs. One of the doctors who was experimenting on me helped me escape. I wear a special mask around the clock now, as we wait to blow up a factory. The doctor is trying to minimize any damage he may do while he still can. He helped develop an aerosol version of a mutated form of the rabies virus. They also have other drugs. Doctor Octavio thinks they may kill us all.
I ate human flesh and saw horrors I wish I could unsee. I have every reason to believe this strange man.
I love you.
Sincerely,
Your son Thomas.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed the experience. The fact that you invested your time and energy and trusted me enough to invite me into your home provides a tremendous confidence boost to me, the author. If you felt the book offered anything of value, please tell a friend or family member about the work, or any others offered under the Stanley Gray brand. Please also consider leaving a brief review with your online retailer or on Goodreads.
If you enjoyed the book and would like to continue the series, you will find book 2, Alpha Unit, here: https://www.amazon.com/Alpha-Unit-Zombie-Book-Two-ebook/dp/B07JG9CTCK.
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Thank you again.
