Phoenix Protocol- the Middletown Omnibus

by Brent Abell

  Satisfied once the countdown started on the screen, Victoria turned to see Kent rushing from the sample room with a small metal box. Hazardous waste symbols adorned the bright orange container. Kent clutched the black handle on top so tight; his knuckles turned white.

  “Let’s get the fuc…,” Kent began.

  “Glad to see you are following your orders, Victoria,” Markus said, stepping through the door into the lab. He held out the Colt and leveled his aim for Kent.

  “Markus,” Victoria said. She gave her jacket a slight tug and slipped the thumb drive into her pocket.

  “As for you,” Markus said, turning back to Kent, “I’ll take that.” Markus reached out for the bio-hazard case.

  “I can’t,” Kent replied.

  “I order you!” Markus spat.

  Victoria noticed his hand begin to shake from holding the heavy handgun up.

  “My orders came from somebody above you, Markus,” Victoria said.

  Markus slowly moved his aim from Kent to Victoria.

  “What are you talking about, bitch?” Markus hissed.

  “General Harris knew you were up to no good and wanted to ensure the Phoenix project could go on after you finished fucking it up,” Victoria stated.

  She took a glance at the screen; 1 minute, twenty-three seconds.

  “How long?” Markus asked and took a step closer to Victoria. Kent slowly side-stepped Markus and made several small steps toward the door.

  “Since I found a complete accounting for the virus and how you had a special strain of it made for you.”

  “I was dying, and I needed it to live. Look at me! I am ninety-six years old!” Markus smirked and lowered the gun. He chuckled, and his laugh became higher-pitched and more maniacal.

  “You’re delusional,” Victoria replied. She watched in satisfaction as Markus’s face turned a bright red.

  “No, I am immortal!” Markus called out and put the gun’s barrel in his mouth.

  “You can’t reanimate if you blow your brains out,” Victoria sighed. It only took a moment for her to regret saying it. The man deserved to have his brains splatter across the lab wall with no chance to return from the dead.

  “I always valued your opinion and your secretarial skills, but this has to end now. Give me whatever files you copied and have the lab turn-coat hand over the sample.”

  Kent froze and hugged the case. “I’m not giving this over. You’ll have to pry it from my cold dead hands.”

  “Deal,” Markus said and swung the gun around toward Kent. Before Kent could take cover, Markus fired the weapon, and the shot boomed in the lab. Markus twirled to the left from the kick-back, and Kent spun to the right as the bullet skimmed his shoulder.

  “You fucking shot me!” Kent shrieked. The case slipped from his grasp, and he quickly snatched it with his other hand before he let go. Blood welled up and soaked the white lab coat.

  “Give it here!” Markus roared and lunged at Kent.

  Victoria glanced over at the computer and saw it read all files had been deleted. Markus aimed at Kent again, but she reached out and pushed Markus’s arm. He fired, but the shot sailed wide and exploded into the wall.

  “Stop that!” she screamed and pushed past Markus.

  “I’ll come back for you,” he warned and shoved the barrel into his gut. Smiling, he pulled the trigger and felt pain explode in his stomach. Blood flowered around the wound and the ragged hole in his silk shirt. Doubling over, Markus fell to the floor and cringed in agony.

  “Kent! Quick, to the roof!” Victoria shouted and headed to the lab door.

  “Why? There’s no place to go up there,” Kent replied.

  “Trust me, I have a plan,” Victoria said and winked at him.

  “Good, my fucking shoulder hurts,” Kent answered as they exited the lab and ran back to the elevator.

  ***

  The hotdog cart sat before the Xen Pharmaceuticals building, and Darnell Wiggins prepared for the usual lunch rush to hit. Most of the office workers flooded into the streets at around noon, and if they saw his cart first, they would give him the business. He needed the lunch crowd to stay afloat. Since his pension ran out, he had to live off whatever he made from the cart.

  Darnell sat the condiments out and put the signs up for the oncoming lunch rush. He heard the people rushing out, and he smiled.

  Business will be killer today; he thought and turned around with a broad grin ready to great his customers.

  His smile quickly faded.

  The first person he greeted was Kate from the front desk. Blood streaked her face, and her eyes were a milky white. Darnell looked past her and tried to take in the scene unfolding on the front steps. People pushed through under the steel shutters, which had stopped half-way down. Some were trying to run away, but others were grabbing for them and biting into whatever body part they could get in their mouths. Most had red all over their faces and clothes. Others screamed and struggled against the ones who looked like they had gone crazy.

  “Man, I don’t need this shit in my life,” Darnell said and took off running down the sidewalk.

  I need the money, but not that bad; he thought and never looked back.

  ***

  The pain in Markus’s mid-section turned into a dull aching. Slowly, he began crawling to the lab’s storage room. He didn’t feel the virus take hold of him. He waited to feel the effects of it racing through his veins as he rocketed toward death, but the sensation never came.

  “They lied to me,” he told the empty room as realization set in.

  Still, he knew he had a chance to live forever if he could get to the samples on time. His vision already began to darken around his peripheral, and he knew he didn’t have much time left.

  ***

  Blood drenched the elevator. When the doors opened, Victoria and Kent stood back to be ready for anything. One never knew when a flesh-hungry zombie would fall out and try to munch on them. Both felt relieved. Nothing waited for them inside. After they entered and the door closed, Kent looked at the buttons and scratched his head.

  “There isn’t a roof button,” he said.

  “Look out,” Victoria said and opened a panel below the buttons. Inside there was a keyhole, and Victoria slid a key in and turned it. With a ding, the elevator began to move to the roof.

  “So, a helicopter is going to be waiting on us at the top,” Kent asked.

  “Markus thought the air-lift was coming for him, but it is really coming for me and the sample.”

  Kent thought for a moment and felt himself deflate a little. “No room for the guy carrying the samples?”

  “I’m sure we can take you too,” Victoria smiled as he alleviated his fears.

  Victoria watched relief wash over Kent’s face and hoped it would work out for him. He’d been a great help to her.

  ***

  General Harris stepped onto the landing pad and saluted the pilots already behind the controls of the Huey. He hated going into an unknown situation without the normal complements of Hellfires he enjoyed, but Manhattan would be getting it soon enough. All Harris needed to do was get the files and the samples from the Xen Pharmaceuticals building.

  He hoped Victoria would understand.

  “Are you ready, sir?” the guard asked as he reached out from the rear door.

  “Yes, let’s get this over and done. The city burns at dusk, and the sun is a setting fast,” Harris said and climbed aboard. Buckling in, he said a short prayer in his head. He didn’t usually try to get a word in the Almighty, but if things were FUBAR like he thought it was, it wouldn’t hurt to ask a favor.

  Hell, God might answer.

  But as he finished and said his amen, he doubted an answer was coming any time soon.

  ***

  A large gathering of zombies waited in the penthouse hall. A flight of stairs and the secret elevator separated the penthouse from the roof. The undead roamed aimlessly, searching for anything to eat. The zombie siege spread, and
many employees fell prey to them in the elevators. The elevators then dispersed the newly undead to other floors. Five found themselves on the penthouse floor and forced the elevator doors open.

  Like lemmings, once the first one sniffed the air and the smell of blood wafting up the shaft hit their nose, they walked right into it. The first one fell and thudded loudly on top of the elevator, rapidly ascending toward the roof. One-by-one, the other four dropped into the shaft and hit the top of the car.

  Rolling over onto their bellies, they clawed at the metal doors and panels, keeping them from the blood they could smell inside.

  ***

  Something hit the top of the elevator car, and Victoria jumped back from the door.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  Kent glanced up at the top panels and worried. “I’m not sure.”

  “You don’t make me feel any better about this,” Victoria quipped. “Let me see your lab coat.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m cold,” she answered and faked a shiver.

  Kent sat the case on the floor and slipped out of the coat. Holding the jacket out, he tried to smile and pretend he was doing the whole chivalry thing. Instead, Kent handed it over and faked a smile. The smile faded as he held his arm out, and the wound on his shoulder began to seep again. The blood clotted around the injury, and he felt for an exit wound, but never found one. Kent moved his arm and thought he could feel more significant damage beneath the surface. When Kent touched it, he didn’t feel much of anything. It amazed Kent the blast didn’t blow his whole arm off as big as the gun was. He ended up being glad it only grazed him

  Returning his smile, Victoria took the coat and put it on. She tried to bury in the back of her mind what she was doing. Kent didn’t deserve what was coming, but she couldn’t die. Victoria Davis had other things in mind.

  Both were staring at each other when the loud thud made them jump. Something heavy hit the top of the car, and four more thumps followed. Something began to bang on the top, and it sounded like a fist. Scratching followed, and Victoria slid to the car floor. Kent slowly sat down and pulling up his knees, buried his face in his hands.

  “What do we do know?” Kent asked.

  “Ride it out,” Victoria stated bluntly.

  “So… we do nothing?”

  “Let the elevator do the dirty work for us,” Victoria replied and smiled at Kent.

  “What?” Kent asked, and then realization crossed his face. “When it gets to the top, the elevator will crush them.”

  “I hope,” she sighed in return.

  The hammering fists grew louder and louder. It seemed the elevator ceased to rise and held steady at a floor. Victoria watched the ceiling tiles in silence. Kent cowered in the corner and began to whimper.

  “Are we moving?” Kent asked. His voice cracked like a pre-pubescent boy.

  Victoria pressed her hand to the floor and then held it against the wooden wall panel. “No, we stopped.”

  “What do we do?”

  “Open the door and see where we’re at,” she responded and stood up. Above, the ceiling tiles and light fixtures began to break. Small pieces of plastic and fibrous pieces of tile started to shower the inside of the elevator car.

  Kent stood up and left the case on the floor. Taking a deep breath, he dug his fingers into the gap between the doors and tried to pull them apart. Kent’s fingers ached, but he pushed them further in and pulled hard. The doors budged slightly, and he caught a small glimpse of the floor where they were stuck.

  “Well?” Victoria asked and felt a large chunk of tile land on her shoulder.

  “We’re stopped on the penthouse level. It stopped most of the way up,” Kent answered.

  “Ugh,” something above their heads grunted.

  Victoria looked up and backed away from the blood streaming down from the shredded arm reaching through the ragged hole in the ceiling tiles. She’d read enough in the files to know not to touch the blood.

  “Grab the left door, and I pull on the right. We should be able to open it then,” Victoria ordered.

  Each one grabbed their respective door and pulled. Victoria braced her legs and used her weight to open her side further. Kent yelled and pulled his side open also. Both of them let go and doubled over panting. Kent backed up and sighed.

  Victoria noticed it too late.

  Kent looked up, and the dripping blood landed on his glasses. In a panic, he reached up and threw his glasses to the floor. Kent felt the slick, sticky gore on his fingers, and bile rose in his throat. In a few seconds, he knew the virus already began to absorb into his skin and begin the journey to his head.

  “Victoria, grab the samples and crawl out of the elevator now,” he said. His voice sounded calm for someone who got handed a death sentence.

  Victoria nodded and bent over to pick up the small case with the sample. “Thank you.”

  Kent smirked, and the first spike in his temperature flared up. “No problem. We’re all fucked anyway.”

  Without another word, Victoria reached up and pulled herself through the opening in the door. Before she finished clearing the elevator, she heard Kent’s body thump to the floor and the zombie’s crash through the ceiling tiles.

  Her time was running out, but now she had a clear shot to the rooftop.

  ***

  General Harris watched the chaos erupting in the streets below him. From his vantage point, he could see the bonds of society breaking down. People rushed from their cars, a wave of others poured over the other trying to run, and small fires already dotted the avenues. Not that it mattered much, shortly it would all be burning.

  “Sir, we are above the rendezvous point,” the pilot hollered back to the general.

  “Stay in the air until we see if our package arrives,” Harris yelled back to the front.

  A smile crossed his face. Watching the scene below, he knew the Phoenix was perfect. The only thing he lacked was the vaccine the secret lab at Xen Pharmaceuticals had been designing. In a few short moments, the military could unleash the virus, decimate an area, and then destroy the infected populace. Short, sweet, and to the point.

  “General Harris, someone came out of the roof door.”

  The helicopter banked back toward the building, and Harris squinted his eyes to see the person better. The female in the lab coat waved her arms and sat a bright orange case down on the ground.

  “Set her down, that’s our package,” Harris ordered.

  The helicopter descended, and Harris almost couldn’t hide his glee. He felt like a kid on Christmas morning.

  ***

  Victoria flung the door open, and the outside light blinded her. The sun over the city’s landscape was breath-taking, but knowing humanity had begun its spiral toward the end dulled her to it. The helicopter circled a few times, and she saw it start to drop in altitude toward the rooftop. She sat the orange case with the sample on the ground and waved her hands to signal the pilot.

  Over the sound of the copter’s rotors, she heard the screams and sirens from the streets below. Smoke tendrils curled up over the top of the building, and the acrid smell burned her nostrils.

  “This is how the world ends,” she whispered.

  She continued to move across the roof to the helipad in the center. The helicopter dropped rapidly, and she relaxed until she heard the metal door burst open behind her and slam into the building.

  Victoria turned and saw Markus shambling in her direction. Even from a distance, she could tell he’d found a sample of the virus and infected himself. His eyes had the milky white swirl, and Victoria watched the blood seeping from his stomach wound.

  “You feel immortal now, motherfucker!” she called out. “That’s for my fucking cousin, you asshole!”

  In the past, she agreed to help General Harris as a way to stop her power-mad boss, but after watching Middletown burn and knowing her cousin Rex Ross had been attending Middletown University was the final straw. Hurting Markus became a per
sonal mission.

  Behind her, she heard the helicopter touch down on the roof, and someone yell at her. For a moment, she tuned out everything. She forgot about the horrors unfolding on the streets below. The Phoenix samples sat at her feet, and Harris yelled at her to hurry.

  Instead, all she saw was the man responsible for Rex’s death. Sure, he may not have ordered Middletown bombed, but he was responsible for the virus that made burning the town the only option. The people in charge destroyed all those lives, and the virus still ended up in the open. She figured the same fate awaited Manhattan, but now she had a score to settle.

  Victoria stood still and watched the Markus zombie draw closer.

  ***

  “What is she doing?” Harris yelled.

  The two pilots exchanged glances and shrugged.

  “Sir, I think she wants to engage.”

  “She needs help,” the other pilot said.

  “Somebody hand me their side-arm,” Harris ordered.

  One of the pilots pulled their side-arm from the holster and handed it back to the general. Harris accepted it and nodded. Without another word, he climbed from the helicopter and ran toward Victoria.

  ***

  “Victoria!” the voice called behind her.

  She turned and saw General Harris rushing toward her. She noticed the gun in his hand and felt something inside her snap.

  “General Harris?” Victoria called out to the soldier running at her.

  “Yes,” he answered. “The guys thought you might want this,” he replied and offered her the gun.

  Victoria grinned and took the gun from Harris. The metal seemed cumbersome at first, but it felt good in her hands. She thought about the holidays at her grandmother’s house, where she hung out with Rex. She remembered the fun times they had and the first drinks and cigarettes they shared on dares to each other. He was the voice of Middletown University’s radio station and was the coolest cat in when he walked into any room. She only wanted to be like him, and her boss killed him. It was indirectly, but she put the brunt of responsibility on him.

  The guilt was his.

  “I wish you knew it was me who did this and why. Go to Hell, motherfucker,” Victoria said and depressed the trigger.