I Zombie I [Omnibus Edition]

by Jack Wallen

  “No matter what happens, no matter what you see or hear, do not stop filming. At all costs are you to continue shooting this project. Should you or any of your crew stop filming, you will be immediately removed from the project and replaced. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”

  I nodded urgently. Though Burgess gave me no time to ponder the statements, I knew one simple thing – I wasn’t about to give up on the money or the shot at fame this film offered.

  “I also want no questions asked. Everything in my life has lead up to this very moment. The balance is currently even and I plan on tipping an historic and monumental scale in a way that might well change the path of mankind. Should anyone get in the way of me realizing this dream, their lives are forfeit.” Burgess’ thought process hiccuped; his brain clearly retraced its last thought. “When someone is dead to me, they may as well be dead to the world.”

  A confusing silence slowly drifted down over the room. I wasn’t sure if I should nod in understanding or run screaming. Either way, the air was thick with tension as Burgess and I tossed an armada of knowing, evil, and threatening glances at one another.

  I decided to break the awkward silence.

  “Can you at least give me some indication as to the plot of this film?”

  Burgess gave barely a thought to my request. “No. The story will unfold as you film. There will be plenty of plot threads develop. The plan is simple – you film everything and, in the end, we find the meaning and create a film that will leave an indelible and prophetic mark on the world. You manage that and your payout will be the stuff of legends. Now, if you will excuse me…oh, one last thing. That green light above the master console – when it lights up, it’s go time.”

  Without another word, the man left. Bereft of Burgess’ heft, the booth felt completely empty.

  “What in the fuck was that?” Sonja broke the silence.

  “I have no idea. Whatever is going on just grew infinitely more interesting.”

  “And creepy! Malcolm, are we safe?”

  “Sony…it’s just a movie. Do you need to keep telling yourself that?”

  We had a much needed laugh that was cut short by crew check-ins. It was time to start going through camera and sound checks. I pulled on my headset and began with camera one.

  Chapter 6

  The only sound in the lab was the metallic clink of instruments and the clicking of keyboards. Every member of the Zero Day Collective biological team knew the second the rabies strain entered the lab all hell would break loose. Precise order would cave to chaos as every team member scrambled to synthesize the Mengele Virus. There would be no time for discussion, no time for tests or control groups. Second-guessing and sampling was over. This was it – the last chance.

  The speed and efficiency of work, brought about by unrelenting focus, was destroyed the second Tabitha awoke from her drug-induced sleep. Screams rattled out of Test Room A as the lab tech secured to the surgical gurney immediately ripped her vocal chords into shreds calling out for help. She knew, however, that help would not come. Her purpose was quite specific and no one in the vicinity would be willing to satisfy her need for freedom.

  “Please don’t do this to me! Help!” She continued to call out. With every scream it became easier to spot those new among the crew. The seasoned technicians were unfazed by the pleas. The fledgling among the crowed flinched and squirmed.

  When the door to the lab flew open, and the stranger appeared holding a sealed container, everything in the lab came to a halt. It had arrived – the rabies strain.

  Gerand nodded to the deliveryman and waved him off. Without a word the man in the brown coveralls carefully placed the aluminum box on the floor in the center of the room and slipped away from the lab. Gerand crossed to the center of the room and picked up the package.

  “Bring the subject here.”

  The container was locked with a digital numeric pad. Without a breath of hesitation, Gerand tapped in the key.

  03161911

  With a hiss, the top of the container slid open to reveal a vial suspended by a complex framing system. Within the container was housed a mechanism to vaporize the virus should the box be forced open or the wrong key be entered more than three times.

  “Schrödinger’s Safe. Brilliant.” One of the underlings whispered from behind Gerand.

  The lead biologist systematically unset the framing system and carefully pulled out the small glass vial.

  The sounds of the girl’s screams peaked as the door to the isolation room flew open.

  “No! Please, don’t do this. Please!”

  “It’s okay Tabitha. It’ll all be over…”

  “What are you doing?” Gerand stood and turned at the sound of comfort.

  “I’m just trying to…”

  “The question was rhetorical. This question, however, is not. If you care so much for your dear friend, would you like to join her?”

  Silence.

  “Answer me now, or your fate is cast by me.”

  The girl shook her head almost violently.

  “That’s what I thought,” Gerand hissed. “For your insolence, you will be doing the injection.”

  Tears raced down the girl’s cheeks as she bit her lip to silence the cries that threatened to spill forth.

  Gerand went to work. He plunged a large, metal syringe into the vial containing the rabis virus and extracted the clear liquid. The virus was then injected into another vial. Gerand spoke as he shook the mixture.

  “What we are about to do, we do for the good of all mankind. You are all about to witness the beginning of a new era for the human race. With this virus the master…” Gerand swallowed his words. He had already voiced too much.

  The biologist tapped a number on a video conferencing system.

  “Yes?”

  “Mr. Burgess.” Gerand held up the vial with the deadly mixture to the camera. “You are looking at the Mengele Virus, strain 002. I believe this will bring about the results you so desperately seek. My test subject is ready. Would you like to join us?”

  “No. Do it now. Just aim the camera at the subject so I can watch everything.”

  The biologist complied.

  “What was your name, little miss comfort?”

  “Amanda.” The young woman spoke through contained sobs.

  “Take up the needle and stick your friend. This is an intramuscular injection, so the thigh will be sufficient.”

  Amanda hesitated.

  “I have a gun. I will shoot you.” Gerand seethed.

  The young girl grabbed the hypodermic out of the biologist’s hand and turned to the writhing woman on the gurney.

  “Oh God…please don’t do this. I don’t want to die. Please.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  The gleaming needle made a lovely arc above the thigh.

  “Noooooo!”

  As soon as the tip of the syringe passed through the epidermis and dermis, Amanda depressed the plunger. Tabitha’s arms and legs jerked violently against her restraints – to no avail. The desperate cries for help continued. Gerand made no move to silence her pleas. Everyone in the lab looked on in shock or amazement. Some of the technicians held aloft their phones to film the unfolding action. Little did they know every phone would be immediately confiscated.

  Tabitha’s near-primal fear subsided and was replaced by spasms until her body went completely still. An almost deadly silence spilled over the room. Tabitha’s breathing had stopped. Gerand began to slowly move toward the gurney. As he came to a slow-motion halt, the heart rate monitor toned a flatline chorus, nearly frightening Gerand into cardiac arrhythmia. Seconds ticked into minutes without a movement from within the room. The only sound was the continued flatline song.

  The room relaxed. Just as everyone was about to claim the experiment a failure, Tabitha wailed an exorcist aria. Chills of fear spider webbed throughout the room, causing everyone to want to run as quickly as they could. Still, no one moved.

&nbs
p; When the roaring finally ceased, Tabitha opened her eyes. In place of the once brilliant blue irises was a sour-milk white coating over the orbs. Within the sockets, the eyeballs were fixed, worthless. Low moans poured from the dry and cracked mouth of the experiment.

  “It worked.” Gerand cried out. “Burgess…do you see that? We did it! We did the unthinkable.”

  “Congratulations Gerand. Prepare the girl for release.”

  The unexpected command punched the biologist in the kidneys.

  “What? No. I have an entire battery of tests to run. We don’t know if…”

  “We don’t have time for this shit, Gerand. Besides, I am the one calling the shots. If I say release the bitch, I damn well mean it. Get her prepared and release her into the town, or prepare to join her fate.”

  Under normal circumstances, Gerand would laugh at such threats. He knew, however, the threat was very real.

  “I want her released into sector C-5 within the next thirty minutes. If this doesn’t happen I will be arriving at your location and jabbing that goddamn needle into your eye. Have I made myself perfectly clear?”

  Gerand nodded his head. “Perfectly sir.”

  The image on the screen faded. The only sound was the ragged moaning of Tabitha.

  “She’s a zombie!” One of the techs pronounced. “Holy shit!”

  The girl lay on the gurney, breathing heavily, anxious for release.

  “Bring in the transport cage.” The biologist called out to anyone listening. Two of the larger male techs ran off to retrieve the iron-bar cage.

  Gerand drew close to the gurney. When Tabitha spotted the approaching flesh, her teeth gnashed and clacked; her arms and legs strained at the nylon webbing holding them down. A foamy mucous spattered the floor and the clothes of the subject.

  Eyes that were once capable of twinkling and flirting glared uselessly upward. When the smell of living flesh danced into the nostrils of the girl on the gurney, some switch was flipped and she went insane. The neck of the beast stretched to near snapping, her jaws clashed together until her teeth threatened to shatter. What was once a lowing moan turned in on itself to become a death-metal growl.

  Just as it looked like Tabitha might rip through the bonds holding her down, the two men returned with a gurney encased in a steel cage. The cage was wheeled up so its head butted up against the feet of the steel bed holding the zombie. The cage locked onto a railing system and easily slid over the imprisoning gurney. With the pull of a few pins, the webbing was released and Tabitha’s extremities were unleashed. Her hands and feet lashed out at the iron bars. The flesh of her knuckles broke. Dark, thick blood dropped to the floor with heavy ‘taps’.

  “Careful of the bodily fluids. We have no idea how long the virus can survive ounce outside of the host.” Gerand shouted above the rage-filled roar of the beast.

  The cage was rolled through the open doors of the lab and into the chilled night air. From the mouth of madness a deadly roar slashed and jabbed at the darkness. Within a dim circle of light cast by a safety lamp, a hearse awaited the caged beast.

  Gerand opened the back gate of the vehicle and waved the young men pushing the gurney towards the entry.

  “You’re kidding, right? Let me guess, you have Elvira up front to chauffeur this bad boy around?”

  “I do not kid. This is all very real and you would do better to take it seriously else you wind up next in line for transformation.”

  The young man gave the gurney a push and tossed his hands into the air. “Fuck this shit. I’m out of here.”

  With the ease of pulling a comb out of a pocket, Gerand reached into the small of his back and wrapped his fingers around his Taser. The cock-sure youth pissed himself as he seized on the concrete.

  “Carry him into Test Room A and secure him to a table. Should Tabitha not make it, he will be our next subject.” Gerand turned to face his wide-eyed crowd. “Should anyone else attempt a similar exit, you will not be shown such kindness. This young man happened to be lucky in that I needed a backup. I no longer require a second specimen, so the next attempt to escape will result in death. Now, please place this cage in the vehicle and prepare the subject for release into sector C-5. Is that clear?”

  All in attendance nodded their obedience.

  The cage slid effortlessly into the back of the hearse. After Gerand chose his new assistants, the vehicle drove off into the cover of night.

  Chapter 7

  The phone in Burgess’ sweaty palm buzzed. A nervous sigh escaped his mouth as he tapped the screen to accept the call.

  “You better have good news for me biologist,” Burgess said to the caller.

  Everyone seated around the over-sized boardroom table stared on in anticipation.

  “I see. Twenty minutes? Perfect. I will inform the director.”

  Burgess sat the mobile phone down and looked up at his fellow Zero Day Collective board members.

  “Let the games begin.” John Burgess almost grinned. He was never one to show any emotion but anger. When the corners of his mount nearly broke the horizontal line of his lips, everyone in the room relaxed.

  Fat fingers scooped up the phone again and tapped out a number. Before the third ring, Burgess placed the call on speaker and set the smart phone back on the table.

  “Yes?”

  “Malcolm, ready to roll film in twenty minutes.”

  “Can you at least tell me where the first scene is to start? You’ve given me nothing to work with so far.”

  “And that is exactly how we want this. What you are filming is to be as realistic as possible. The very heart of this movie is to force the viewer to question the validity of its truth. We want to go beyond the typical lies and distractions force fed to us by Hollywood. I want you to give me the reality that lies under the skin; the ugly, painful side of humanity. Find it. Out there within the black of night, your Oscar awaits.”

  Burgess ended the call, slowly placed the phone before him, and grinned at his audience.

  “Honestly John…don’t you think there are easier ways to test the virus? Why a movie?” It was Elizabeth Pente, one of the more recent additions to the Zero Day Collective. She was brought in primarily for her funding; but her venomous outlook toward mankind fit in nicely too.

  “This isn’t just a movie. We are about to rewrite history and remake the human race. It is our duty to record every moment. I chose the vehicle of fiction to add a touch of irony. At some point people will look upon this film and it will finally dawn on them, what they witnessed wasn’t a lie. The new world order is about to begin and that revolution will be televised.”

  Burgess slammed his meaty fist on the hardwood table. Water in glasses rippled as if Godzilla had skipped by. Elizabeth Pente leaned back and crossed her arms over her breasts. She loved power. Even with Burgess’ great girth, it couldn’t be denied the man currently held the fate of the world in his beefy palm.

  “So you plan on actually releasing this film for public consumption? Will the premiere be before the virus is released upon the world or after?” Pente’s smile could not be contained.

  “Why Elizabeth, are you flirting with me?” John winked and the room erupted with laughter. “The film will open prior to the release of the Mengele Virus. I want the world to get a taste of what is to come. T-Minus Zero will either prove mankind too stupid to continue or give them pause enough to panic. Either way, we win. Besides, how better to test the virus and its effects than within the confines of an enclosed city? We have live feeds from every camera to record every single moment for posterity and the silver screen. Shall we pop some popcorn?”

  Burgess tapped a button on an over-sized remote and large monitors hanging around the room came to life. On each monitor a different camera was displayed. Some of the cameras slowly panned, left to right and some were moving about, carried on the shoulders of the crew. A few of the cameras cast the familiar green glow of infrared lenses. No expense was spared.

  Three hundred an
d sixty degrees of fright surrounded the audience. At the moment, however, nothing was happening. The cameras were picking up little more than a symphony of night.

  “Now this is certainly Oscar material there Burgess.” Elizabeth shot the unmasked insult straight across the table. Those around her laughed. Those around Burgess sucked in a quick, tense breath.

  Burgess simply smiled.

  Seconds ticked off the clock without a sound, without movement from either the audience or the monitors. Elizabeth stood and smoothed out the front of her tailored skirt suit.

  “I think I’ve seen quite enough.”

  Before the woman could speak another word, John Burgess nodded toward one of the screens.

  “And so…it begins.”

  A black hearse pulled into view. The camera stopped panning and fixed its focus on the hearse.

  “The cameras are geared to pick up motion and follow. It’s a brilliant design. Let’s have a little sound, shall we?” Burgess tapped a few commands on the tablet in front of him. The sound level rose to an almost uncomfortable level. “I like my movies loud.”

  Gerand and the passenger stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the back of the car.

  “How do we do this without that thing getting too close and personal? If you think I’m just going to unlatch the door and wait around, you’re crazier than I assumed.” The passenger spoke nervously to the driver.

  Gerand opened the rear door to the hearse. “We’ve taken care of that. There is timed mechanism on the cage. We pull the gurney out, set the timer, and drive off. Whatever hell she rains down, once she’s released, we’ll not be around to enjoy.”

  The two men rolled the caged gurney out of the hearse. The sprung legs shot to the ground to make the transition perfectly smooth. Gerand pointed toward the camera and the two men steered the cage closer. As the gurney moved in, the lens followed and focused.

  “I’m setting the timer for five minutes.” Gerand waved at the camera as he spoke, clearly wanting Burgess and the director to catch his instructions. For good measure, he held up five fingers and pointed to his watch.