I Zombie I [Omnibus Edition]

by Jack Wallen

  That thought, of course, was leading me back to Mengele. Surely that wasn’t just coincidence. Or, even better, just someone’s idea of a sick joke. How in the hell could Josef Mengele reach out from the grave and wreak such havoc once again? None of this was making sense. I thought we knew everything.

  The sounds of crashing metal and screeching moaners yanked me out of a Nazi-filled past and back to our zombie-filled present. The sounds of our echoing footsteps in the passageway edged me down from a high cliff of anxiety.

  “According to the map, this is the door. It will let us out on the back side of the building.”

  “Bingo! Let me check what’s out there.”

  “Bethany, let me check.”

  “Be my guest.”

  “It’s clear. Come on. But stay quiet.”

  The story outside of the building was no better than the story within. The smell of smoke, the sounds of alarms, random screams and screeching―the city was alive with death, and the gray ash continued to blanket the planet.

  “I think our only chance is the airport. If we’re lucky, we can catch a flight out of Germany and back to the States.”

  Bethany spoke with a tinge of hope in her voice. I wanted to remind her that almost the entire population of Germany was either dead, zombified, or in hiding. The chances of the government allowing any flights to leave the ground were slim at best. But with Susan among us, I didn’t have the heart to be all gloom and doom. There was enough of that in 360-degree, fright-o-rama, Technicolor reality.

  Instead, I proffered my go finger, and we ever-so-silently marched on. It seemed as if Bethany knew where she was going. That, of course, didn’t surprise me. The woman embodied preparedness, along with an amazing ability to improvise in just about any situation.

  We had to cut a wide berth around the building to avoid being seen or heard by the horde. Unfortunately, I did happen to catch a glimpse of the carnage. There was, to my dismayed disgust, a hill of gore. It was like some Grand Guignol King of the Hill that was better suited for the bowels of Hell than the firmament of Earth. Even if the sight didn’t make me want to vomit, the smell would have. I’d had the stench of rotting flesh accost my senses before, but this was a force refusing to be ignored. The smell was palpable, tasting of rotten tofu, bile, and week-old raw beef.

  When I noticed Susan getting a whiff, I grabbed her head, turned it, and told her to keep looking straight in front of her. One glance at the warring ghouls and her screams would bring down the wrath of Hell itself.

  Susan seemed to understand what I was trying to convey and didn’t even attempt a single glance. Maybe she caught the severity in my tone, or maybe everything that had happened up to this point informed her that there were things best left unseen and unheard. I gave her a pat on the shoulder, and she relaxed slightly.

  We walked into a clearing and were about to head toward an actual road when I heard footsteps…too many footsteps. I stopped us from going forward and indicated I was going to take a look. My heart was pounding in my throat. The unknown was beginning to terrify me, and there was so much fucking unknown. Fear had taken hold of me so tightly I wasn’t sure I’d be able to break its grip.

  Right before I placed my head through the clump of trees separating us from the makers of the noise, I felt that old familiar twitching. It was happening again. I reached up to grab my head and dropped to my knees. Christ, I couldn’t catch a break.

  “Jacob, what’s…? Oh, no. You’re kidding! What do we do now?”

  “Run.”

  “We can’t just leave you here.”

  “Shit…Bethany…it’s happening…fast.” The lightning strikes of the pain were snapping up and down my body.

  “I have an idea.”

  Bethany reached into her pack and pulled out a hypodermic.

  “It’s a sedative. It’ll knock you out until the symptoms pass.”

  The sedative hit me fast and hard.

  “Good night, sweet prince. We’ll be here when you awaken.”

  Chapter 26: Back on the streets

  I have no idea what happened. I remember getting that ol’ lovin’ feeling and then – nothing. I woke up, tucked away in a pine grove without Bethany or Susan. Shit, if the horde snagged them, I’ll never forgive myself.

  What the hell? I found a syringe on the ground. I’m starting to remember now. Bethany knocked me out to keep me from giving us away. But what happened after that? Of course…the recorder.

  “What are we going to do, Bethany?”

  “There isn’t much we can do, sweetie. We’ll just have to wait here until Jacob wakes up.”

  Moaning.

  Footsteps.

  Moaning.

  Footsteps.

  Screaming.

  “Run, Susan! Run…back to the lab! Come on!”

  Screaming.

  “What about Jacob?”

  Screaming.

  “We’ll come back for him. Run!”

  Moaning.

  Screaming.

  Silence.

  Silence.

  Silence.

  Wind blowing.

  Silence.

  Breathing.

  Silence.

  Breathing.

  Silence.

  Silence.

  Moaning.

  “What the hell?”

  Moaning.

  “What hit me? Where am I? Where’s…Bethany? Susan? Oh God, where’s my notebook? Shit, it has to be here.”

  Rustling.

  “Oh good…that would have been tragic.”

  ~

  I really didn’t want to go back to that place. I could wait here until they returned. Fuck, who was I kidding? I couldn’t leave them alone. I had to go back, but I needed to find some sort of weapon first – a silent weapon. Wait a minute, that’s it. Shit, why I didn’t think of it before? I had to get back to the lab. It was all about sound. We could create a device that would emit a sound to repel the zombies.

  ~

  I took off, running faster than I ever had. My heart wanted to explode out of my chest. I had hoped the transition between states would have given me some superhuman abilities, but no such luck. Luckily we hadn’t managed to get far before the girls had had to retreat.

  I arrived back at the hidden entrance to find Bethany and Susan curled up in the darkened hall. When I explained my idea to Bethany, she was too busy apologizing for leaving to actually hear what I said.

  “Bethany, we can make a weapon!” I grabbed her lovely face in my hands and forced her to look me in the eye. That managed to get her attention.

  “How?”

  “Sound.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “We have to get back to Room 77. I’ll explain there.”

  “How do we know the bottom level isn’t filled with them?” Susan was sniffling and near another emotional breakdown.

  “Well, Susan, we don’t know. But we’ll be safe. I promise. But we have to be quiet again.”

  “Okay.”

  We heard distant screams.

  “That sounded like…”

  “I know, Susan…just try to remain quiet.”

  “I’m scared.”

  “We’ll protect you.”

  “Promise?”

  “Promise.”

  We made it to Room 77 and barred the door behind us. Even though I had promised Susan we’d protect her, I wasn’t so sure just how well we could. Judging from the sounds of the screams, the floor above was filled with zombies. It was only a matter of time before they made it down en masse. We had to work fast. The only problem was that I wasn’t one hundred percent sure of what I was doing.

  “So, what are we doing, Jacob?”

  What was it with a woman’s ability to read the minds of men?

  “Let me see if I can explain. Whenever I change, the thing that compels me to do what I do is stopping the noise. Now, the noise is internal; it’s not even real. At least, it’s not anything I can hear when I’m just me. So
I figure the only way to protect us is by creating something that would produce a sound that would repel them.”

  My explanation wasn’t really doing my idea justice.

  “You mean like those devices that emit a high-frequency sound that’s supposed to repel mosquitoes? Jacob, those don’t work.”

  “Right, but this will. They’re trying to escape that sound…or actually, they’re trying to help others escape the sound. But if that sound were externalized, they would be compelled to get away from the source.”

  Bethany was staring at me like I was crazy. “Jacob, I don’t know…”

  “Look, you have to trust me. I can’t tell you exactly why I know this will work, but I know it will. Those things only want silence. That sound in their head is imaginary. If we created a very real, very intense version of that same sound, there is no way they could stand it.”

  My plea began to melt her resistance.

  “Okay, I’m sure I could build a device that would produce a sound, and produce it loud enough to give us plenty of cushion. But how do I know what kind of sound I need to produce?”

  That was where I came in. I pointed to my skull and winked. She got my point right away.

  “It’s going to be fairly high-pitched and oscillating. Sort of like whup whup whup only a lot higher.”

  My description of the sound was pathetic, but it certainly got the point across.

  “That’s fairly rudimentary. I’m sure we have everything in this room we need. Once I find all I need, give me about an hour, and I’ll have it built.”

  “While you do that, I’ll see if there’s any way out of this ruin of a country.”

  “What about the doctor? Should we check on him?” Susan spoke quietly, dropping a brick of guilt onto my gut.

  I couldn’t believe we had returned to ground zero without bothering to check on the very progenitor of the most recent stage of human evolution. Talk about losing all sense of humanity. Even though I hated the man for what he had done, and even barring the fact that he was most likely full-on zombie by now, I knew I should at least make sure some shred of his human self hadn’t pulled off one last miracle and wrenched the Hyde from his Jekyll. There was a slight chance he could have transformed back.

  I remembered the camera in the holding cell. I was fairly certain Bethany could switch that baby on remotely, and we could get some visual sign that Dr. Godwin had hopefully remained human.

  “Lucky for us, we can check on the doctor from here.”

  I turned to the monitoring station and after Bethany made sure the remote system was working, cycled through the channels. Susan took her place by my side. Our eyes were glued to the monitor.

  When the monitor revealed the holding cell, Susan let loose a horrible scream. Dr. Godwin was kneeling on the table and pulling the skin from his own skull. He had managed to rip his ears from the sides of his head and gouge out his own eyes. The man’s jaw was hanging completely disjointed from the upper portion of his head. Blood was everywhere. He was obviously desperate to silence the noise inside his head.

  Susan’s screech continued filling the room. I had to silence her before she drew the most unwanted attention our way.

  “Susan, you have to stop screaming.” My words fell on deaf ears.

  “If you don’t stop, those things are going to know where to find us.” Again, Susan showed no sign of hearing my words.

  “Please, Susan. If they find us, we’ll all wind up like Dr. Godwin.” The young girl continued her wailing.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jacob. Haven’t you ever been around children before? Susan! Shut up!” Bethany’s sharp tone instantly silenced the young girl. “That’s better. Now, young lady, you have to be quiet so we can get out of here alive.”

  I shut off the monitor in case our old zombie pal decided to take his self-mutilation to another level. We couldn’t afford another auditory outbreak like we had just experienced. If it happened again, we might as well join Godwin in a race to see who could peel back the mask of humanity the fastest.

  I only hoped it wasn’t too late. I could have scanned the halls with the monitors, but I was afraid of eating up too much time or seeing something else that would call back the siren song of Susan. I had a better idea. I put Susan to the task of ransacking Room 77 in search of supplies―food, water, first aid…anything that might help us on our journey.

  While Susan scavenged, I started looking around the building and checking the news for any information on airports and border crossings.

  We all tried to ignore the crashing and screaming noises in the background.

  And the zombies continued to make their way to us. Thanks to Susan’s screams they now had a target, a purpose.

  “Have you thought about how we’re going to power this device?” Bethany asked as she worked.

  “I am deferring that decision to your capable brain and hands.”

  “Gee, thanks. Guess you’re lucky you have a nerd around, huh?”

  “You can’t begin to fathom how lucky I am to have you around.” I turned and gazed at her with all seriousness, just in case she caught even the slightest hint of sarcasm in my tone. She didn’t. She knew every word, every syllable, was honest. She smiled. I had the urge to pull her to me and kiss her deeply. I refrained. We were on a tight schedule. Zombies, after all.

  I switched the monitors to outdoor surveillance. The front porch had only changed because the mountain of gore had grown nearly twofold. It looked like we’d be escaping by the same route we had originally taken. Only this time, we wouldn’t let a bunch of skull-crushers stop us from finding freedom.

  I scanned the radio to see if anyone was broadcasting. Nothing. Even though our situation was looking grimmer by the moment, I would not let on to my companions just how bad it was. Bethany and Susan had to think there was hope, regardless of how slim. If hope was lost, along with it would go our chance for survival.

  But where would we go? We needed to get out of Germany. I could only think of one way out, and that was by air.

  “Wait! I got it.” My declaration startled both my girls.

  “What? What is it? You’re not…”

  “No. I’m still me. But I know how we can get out of here.” I held my big announcement for dramatic effect. Both Bethany and Susan chewed their lips in excitement.

  “Well? Spit it out!”

  “Train.” I said triumphantly. “We passed a train station in the middle of the town. All we have to do is make it there and wait for a train to come through.”

  “But how do we know the trains are still running?” Bethany had a good point.

  “We don’t. But if they aren’t running, maybe we could find one and run it ourselves. Easier than flying a plane, I would imagine.”

  “Brilliant!” Bethany was so excited she reached over and laid a perfect, warm kiss on my lips.

  “Get a room.” Susan wasn’t a fan.

  The moment could have been awkward. Instead, it brought the tiniest fragment of levity to the room. Had we not been living such a wretched existence at the moment, we might have all shared a much-needed laugh.

  Before the laughter could begin, screams ripped through the fabric of the space between us. The sound returned a heavy tension to the room.

  Thanks to the undead horde, that laugh wouldn’t happen.

  “How’s the sound device coming along?”

  “Piece o’ cake. Only question is the power supply. I think I’ve figured out how to build this so it will use next to no power. If I had a solar cell, we would only need a battery source at night or in the dark. But I don’t happen to have a solar cell handy. Or…I could…perfect! How are you with a crank?”

  In the blink of an eye, Bethany had figured out how to create an electromagnetic crank that could create just enough juice to power our new weapon. I had to hand it to the girl, the force was strong within her.

  This plan could actually work. Our chances of survival seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.
And with the very thought of survival, Susan came over to show off her haul―a can of peanuts, a bag of pretzels, and a box of some strange-looking energy bars. The moment made me think of a child with a seriously disappointing Halloween haul.

  “Perfect. The energy bars will serve us well. You did great, chipmunk. Now maybe you could find something to carry your loot in?” I had to keep the moppet busy so as to keep her eyes and ears from seeing and hearing anything that could bring about another round of soul-piercing, zombie-drawing screams. One more of those babies and…well…I didn’t have it in me to think of that, not now, not when we were so close.

  “Okay, I think I’m ready to test this thing.” Bethany’s voice carried a tinge of doubt behind her usual certainty. “I have the volume down in case it’s not the right frequency. I assumed you could tell me when it’s right. Yes?”

  I gave her a nod and started to crank up the device. It was like winding up an old Victrola, only the winding never ceased…and the music wasn’t as good.

  The sound that first spilled out of the speaker was way too low, but the oscillation was close. I pointed up, and she made an adjustment. The pitch was still too low, so I repeated the gesture with more severity. She got the idea and pitched the tone up an entire octave. Getting close. I gave her the cue to raise it again, only this time not so much. When the tone changed, it was like burning ice picks were jabbed through my eardrums and into my brain. The noise dropped me to my knees.

  “Jacob, are you okay?” My breathing was ragged, and my heart was pounding hard. Bethany called out to me a second time.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I assume you understood that was the right pitch?” I managed to squeak out the question between gasps.

  “Yeah, I got it. You think it will work?”

  My gasping was answer enough.

  Once I reassured Bethany and Susan that I was fine, we gathered everything we needed and went to the head of the escape route. We were as prepared as we could be to embark on a mission we probably shouldn’t be undertaking. But then, what else could we do? Rot in a room surrounded by zombies?