Revealed: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction
Page 11
The doctor was not impressed with the interruption. She tried pulling Chaz's hands off her, but Chaz wasn't letting go.
"Doc, you have to let them in."
The doctor address Chaz. "I know that. It's not me you need to convince, it's him." She motioned towards the general, who was now turning to see what Chaz was rambling about. "General, it would seem that even your prisoner agrees with me. We need to get those two people, or at the least the girl, inside."
"He's not my prisoner, Doctor. He's a war hero. At least he was a hero, till he deserted his platoon down south a few weeks ago. I don't know what the hell he's doing here, but I wouldn't put much stock in what he has to say."
Chaz looked at the monitors again, and could see the scenes outside were changing. Alex and Christa were caught between two groups of converging zombies. What the hell has that fool boy gone and done now, Chaz thought. He's dragged that girl into a damn mess.
The group that had initially been focused on getting into the fort had turned their attention to the two humans. They were completely surrounded by over a hundred freaks. And they were fighting. There were a few zombies fighting with them. They encircled Christa, and were keeping most of the freaks from her, but Alex was on his own. He was slashing and taking down as many as he could, but there were too many of them. Soon, the mob enveloped Alex, and Chaz couldn't see him on the monitor any longer. Even the few protecting Christa were losing the battle. She had Alex's blade, but dropped it. She made no attempt to pick it up. She barely moved, and Chaz was sure she had gone into shock. Then one of her protectors disappeared into the mob. They dragged him away, and pulled him limb from limb. The mob was in a frenzy.
Chaz looked back to the doctor and the general, who were still bickering. Chaz grabbed the conference phone from the table. He ripped the cord from it, and threw it towards the bickering couple, hitting the general square on the side of the head. The entire room took notice, stopped talking, and turned to look at Chaz.
"You idiots need to stop your damn yammering, and get that girl in here. Don't you understand what she's capable of? They listen to her. They protect her. Those goddam freaks will do what she wants them to. She doesn't realize it yet, but look. Look up on the damn screen. Those ones around her are protecting her. They're protecting her with their lives. They’re acting like intelligent fucking humans!" Chaz steadied himself on the table. "Which is more than I can say for the lot of you."
The rest of them looked back at the scene, and could see what Chaz saw. There were two protectors desperately trying to keep the rest of the zombie freaks from tearing Christa apart. But they were losing. There were too outnumbered. If the two protectors knew it, they didn't show it. They just kept fighting.
"You need to get her in here now. She’s just as important as that case I was carrying when you dragged me in here. If you don't save her, you're squandering the best opportunity we've ever had to defeat those freaks."
The entire room remained silent for a moment. Then the general turned to one of his soldiers and said, "Get that girl in here. Get her in here now."
"Yes, sir, but ..."
"Direct all the snipers towards the front of the facility. Gather all our internal troops, whatever we have left, and marshal them in the front lobby."
"Everyone, sir?" the sergeant asked.
"You heard me, Sergeant. Leave one guard on the breached wall. He won't have much of a chance if those things turn their attention that way, but we need a show of force up front. This is going to be brutal, but we need to get that girl in here."
"Alex as well, the other human soldier with her. You need to bring him in as well," Chaz chimed in.
The general looked up at the monitors. "I don't see any other humans out there, Colonel."
Chaz looked back to the monitors. "He was there a minute ago, General. You have to bring him in. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for him. Neither would the girl. He's the real hero here today."
"No promises, but we'll do what we can."
The colonel left the room with the sergeant. Chaz attempted to follow them, but after a few steps, he nearly collapsed. The doctor grabbed him by the arm, and directed him back to a seat at the table.
"You can't do anything in your condition, Colonel. Have a seat. You can watch everything from the monitors."
Chaz was reluctant, but took a seat and glanced up regardless. There was only one protector left now, and no sign of Alex. The protector and Christa had moved from where Alex was, pushed by the surge of the crowd.
"My name's Doctor Montgomery. Judith Montgomery; you can call me Judith. Don't call me Judy though, I can't stand that. Makes me feel like a puppet." She took a seat at the table as well, between Chaz and the monitors. She wasn't watching the monitors, but seemed more relaxed since the general had left the room. "Don't worry, the general will get your people out. He's good at what he does. Even if he's a bit pigheaded."
"I can't see Alex anymore," Chaz whispered as he looked over Judith's shoulder towards the monitor.
"He'll get the girl out. I'm quite sure of that." She said nothing about Alex.
Judith kept talking, but Chaz couldn't take his eyes off the monitors. Her voice became just white noise. The protector had picked up Christa's knife, and was desperately using it against their attackers. The freaks were closing in for the kill, when they suddenly started dropping to the ground. The snipers were picking them off. Small spurts of blood came from their skulls as their necks snapped from the force of the bullets. There were still so many coming. The protector now at least had room to maneuver. Christa still wasn't moving, but somehow the protector got her to her feet. He took her by the hand and directed her towards the front door of the fort. On another monitor, he could see one of the snipers yell to the protector. There was no sound on the monitors, but it appeared the sniper was directing him closer towards the front door of the building.
As the snipers kept the freaks from getting to Christa, the fort's remaining soldiers gathered in the front lobby. They numbered only twenty-three. Nowhere near the numbers they’d had when the siege on the fort started, but these were the best of that original group. Only the strong had survived this long. They were fully equipped with riot gear and shields.
As Christa and her protector got closer to the front doors, it was harder for the snipers to get a bead on the freaks. Every freak on the property had now been drawn to the conflict. There were still freaks out of the snipers' lines of sight between Christa and the front door. Christa and her protector had moved about as close to the front door as possible. The lead sniper on the roof radioed the sergeant in the lobby. "Time to move. We'll take him out once we see you."
The front doors of the fort blew open like a tornado had been released inside. The freaks in front of the doors had no chance. The soldiers took them down quickly with knives and riot sticks. As the doors opened, sniper shots pierced the skull of Christa's protector, transforming him into a lifeless bag of bones. Inside the facility, Chaz rose from his chair, his eyes glued to the monitors as the freaks advanced on Christa. The soldiers fought quickly towards her, but to Chaz it felt like they were moving in slow motion. When the doors opened, the pressing mob gained momentum as if they sensed an opportunity. But the snipers managed to hold them back long enough for the foot soldiers to reach Christa.
One of the men picked her up from the ground where she had fallen with her protector. His lifeless body lay across her lap, and she was catatonic. She appeared lifeless. The soldier picked her up and rushed her into the lobby. He handed her off to a lab coat, and returned to the fight. Now that Christa was out of the line of fire, the soldiers used their automatic weapons. Kneeling in formation, they sprayed a stream of bullets on the advancing freaks. The snipers pitched in, whittling the crowd down beyond the automatic-weapons fire. The foot soldiers worked their way down the main road to where Alex and Christa had initially fought. This task was made harder by the piles of bodies they had to wade through. Bodies that had bee
n collecting there during the siege. More freaks advanced to take the place of those that fell to the gunfire.
Finally, the soldiers got to Alex. He was lying on the ground, not moving. Chaz could only watch as a medic reached down to check his pulse. The others held their ground amidst a stream of blood and bullets. The medic picked up Alex, and threw him over his shoulder. The group made their way back towards the front doors. The snipers kept firing as the men on the ground traipsed through the sea of bodies till they were safely back inside.
* * *
"I can't get a steady pulse, Sergeant. It comes and goes," the medic said.
The sergeant looked down on Alex. "Has he been bitten? Has he been infected?"
"Yes, sir, he's definitely been bitten; one of those freaks got a good chunk of his arm, and he's bleeding badly down his right leg."
The sergeant shook his head. "We never should have brought him in here. Damn orders. Get him down below with the white coats. He's their problem now. Make sure he's confined and restrained, regardless of what those science geeks say."
"Yes, sir." Two of the soldiers got Alex onto a gurney, and wheeled him towards the elevators.
"And you two stay with him at all times," the sergeant added.
Both soldiers nodded in agreement as they took Alex into the elevator.
The sergeant now looked around the room for Christa. "Where's the girl?"
Another soldier piped up. "The white coats took her below, sir."
"They were here? One of them actually had the balls to come up here in the middle of all that shit and take her below?"
"Yes, sir, they had a wheelchair waiting when I brought her back in. They didn't take long, they were out of here in a flash."
The sergeant flashed a sarcastic grin, and muttered, "Yeah, that sounds about right. Well, boys, I guess our work here is done. Good job, everyone. Wilson and Evans, get back to that breached wall. Hopefully Barker hasn't died yet."
"Yes, sir." They saluted in unison and headed off.
"The rest of you get back to your regular posts. This party's over for now, but I'm sure the hangover's gonna be doozy."
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Also by Norman Christof
Parables From The Apocalypse
Endings
Revealed
Mutation
Awakening
Rising