“I need a hypodermic needle,” I muttered, looking around. There had to be supplies here somewhere, likely in the suit room. Until backup arrived—if it arrived, and I really didn’t count on it at the moment—we were likely safer in here than outside, seeing that the door was secured with a scanner. That was, if it was still secured. “Did you disengage the locks?” I asked her, unable to keep the anxiety out of my voice. If Hamilton intended to strand me in here, it would make sense—and might just have exacerbated the problem that we had now. No wonder everything could move freely around right now. That was exactly what Nate had tried to prevent.
Gita nodded, but quickly explained. “We had to. They already move around as they please, using the ducts and connective tunnels they seem to have dug into behind the maintenance panels—into the maintenance floors. It was only us who got cornered and couldn’t run away when we needed to. Cole and I can both remotely engage them again.” She tapped something in her jacket pocket. “Got everything I need right here.”
I really didn’t like that answer, but nobody cared about that. “Watch the door for a sec until I’m back,” I told her and went back into the prep room. Sure enough, after digging my way through a stack of plastic containers and empty vials, I found what I was looking for, grabbing an entire blister of needles and two syringes. One would likely have been enough but I got the sense that we wouldn’t have much time left for finding spares. Gita looked relieved as I returned, but that changed when I took the by-now thawed vial from her and prepped one of the syringes with the entire contents of it. “You sure that won’t kill me?” she whispered, eyes impossibly bright.
I had already given her the honest answer, so she got the one she needed to hear right now. “Yes, I’m sure. I’d inject myself to prove it to you, but I only have three or four doses, and I have a feeling we might still need them. If not, I’ll give you the rest once we’re back outside. Trust me.” I flashed her a quick grin. “I’m a doctor.”
Her hand shook as she pulled her jacket to the side so I could reach the less bloody side of her neck, barely whimpering when I—not very expertly—stuck the needle in and pushed the plunger. “I’d say not that kind of doctor but I guess in this case you are,” she muttered. “Shit. That burns.”
“That’s a good sign,” I lied.
Momentary silence fell, both of us listening to our own breathing for a few seconds. I knew that we really needed to get going but I figured that if anything dramatic were about to happen to her after the injection, it would happen now—and I needed to take that time to check. “So what exactly did I miss?” I asked, my eyes now trained at the door rather than my patient, yet watching her closely from the corner of my eye. I should know what I was up against before I went running out there blindly.
Gita, now leaning against the wall next to the door, shrugged. “You called it when you said they’re not dead. Whoever they experimented on, that is. At least it sounds like that’s them. We don’t even know how many of them there are—maybe fifteen? Could be less. They’re strong, like, freakishly strong. I saw one barrel right into Burns and fling him across the room. I know you lot can pack a hell of a punch, but not that much.” She grimaced, reaching up to scratch her neck at the injection site. “They don’t look like the shamblers we’re used to. Not sure they’re dead, for one. They bleed when you shoot them, and they’re quick as fuck. Gaunt going on emaciated, but don’t let that fool you. The one who got me was heavy enough that it took Cole kicking it off. He couldn’t pull it loose.” Her gaze found mine when I briefly glanced at her face. “I don’t wanna die,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper again. “Not like this. Not today of all days.”
“Today’s always a bad day to die,” I told her, smiling sadly. “But you won’t die, so chin up.”
I couldn’t wait any longer. She wasn’t insta-converting—obviously not, her body would have needed something first to initiate that—or dying at a much quicker rate, and that was all I cared about now.
Looking through the small window in the door gave me nothing, so I nodded at the handle. “I take point. You cover my back. Switch over to the other side and open it. We secure the corridor outside, then we see what we can do about the checkpoint.” That came out confidently enough. I even felt I would be able to hold the corridor on my own—and that right there was a problem. I still gave her a nod so she’d go ahead, and then eased myself out of the lab.
At a first glance, the hallway was clear—except for Aimes’s dead body. His weapons were gone, but he still had his pack strapped to his back. I didn’t exactly grieve for the asshole, but he hadn’t really done anything to deserve to die. I’d kind of expected him to be a constant pain in my ass for much longer. Ah well. I was sure he hadn’t expected this, either. There were some drag marks where Russell had been flung against the viewing window, but either he had gotten up himself or he was gone for good. Then there was the blood Gita had lost—and that was it. Holding my breath, I listened, trying to pick up anything, but all I could focus on was the hammering of my heart in my chest.
“I didn’t see any of them when I hid, right there around the corner,” Gita explained. “The one that killed Aimes and banged up Russell came through the open doors, not from behind a wall panel. Miller shot it down but it fled back into the main part before he could finish it off.” That must have rankled—and I sure hoped that thing was still gone.
I was tempted to ask why Nate hadn’t hung around for me, but the answer was obvious—no order from Hamilton could have made him leave me behind, but the knowledge that there was danger ahead that prevented us from exiting sure would have done the trick. I thought I could hear faint noises from the direction of the main lab complex, but nothing close enough to identify it. Even outside of the hot lab the air recycling system was running on full, making my work so much harder than was necessary.
“Stay here,” I told Gita, nodding at the middle of the corridor. “If anything comes through the airlock, shoot it and go hide in the lab. The toilets off the changing rooms have locks on them. I’ll check around the corner. Be right back.”
I felt my neck itch like crazy from what I hoped like hell was just paranoia of being watched as I slowly made my way toward the left part of the outside section of the labs where I knew some of the maintenance rooms were housed, responsible for air and waste management. Here, that system spanned all the levels of the complex, unlike beyond the airlock. The flaw in my plan became obvious immediately as I realized that there were doors leading away on both sides of the hallway, and I’d never be able to establish any kind of anything, let alone a perimeter. This simply wasn’t working.
I felt marginally better when I returned to where I could see Gita, and judging from how relieved she looked, she felt the same. I went right past her and did a similarly half-assed check on the mirror section at the other side, and decided that it would have to do.
“What do we do now?” she asked as I came back.
“We need to find the others. We’re at close to three hours and fifty minutes since breach. Our first countdown is up in ten minutes from now so we have just about fifty minutes left in here until the air becomes unbreathable—if the security system still works, and I’m not risking my life on the guess that it doesn’t. We need to get out, and stat. I say we go through the checkpoint and then—”
I was still trying to find the right words when something slammed into my side, dragging me to the floor as we both rolled, the impact driving the air right out of my lungs so I couldn’t scream—
Shit just got real.
Chapter 15
It took me only a few seconds to realize that the jaws that were snapping for my face belonged to Aimes, not one of the duct-crawling, super stealthy former lab rats—but that didn’t exactly improve my mood. I’d walked by his body twice, and besides considering what there might be left to loot I hadn’t thought about it much. I’d certainly not done what should have been my first move—to put a bullet between his
lifeless eyes. Well, now I was paying the price for that, and feeling like I kind of deserved this really didn’t help. He—it, damnit!—may not have had the strength to fling Burns around, but considering he still had a good thirty pounds on me, that helped me only so much. That I was super fast and super strong now didn’t count for anything against something that had the same advantages, plus a healthy dose of rage and bloodlust that I couldn’t match. But it wasn’t like I had a choice.
Our quick roll-and-tumble ended with me on my back and Aimes perched above me, as these encounters so often went. Anticipating that, I didn’t try to punch up but instead threw my body to the side, breaking the lock it tried to put me into before all our momentum was gone. I got to tear myself free with one knee underneath me, pushing up into a crouch. I’d managed to hold on to my M16 but there was no time to position myself right, let alone aim, yet it was something to slam in the zombie’s face, stock first, as it came for me again—if not enough to get any distance between us. It was right there once more, dripping blood and saliva, and all I had for my effort was a nasty twinge in my left wrist.
Two shots went off in quick succession, the shambler howling with rage as the bullets bit into its ass and thigh. I didn’t have the air in my lungs to congratulate Gita on not shooting me, and used the seconds that bought me to properly grab the assault rifle and pull the trigger myself. The bullets tore right into its torso, sending more blood spraying, but didn’t do much actual damage that would keep it down. I aimed up, trying to get a headshot in, but the shambler knocked the rifle away with a powerful swing of its arm, making me stagger along with it as I wasn’t going to just give it up like that. It pounced, slamming into me a second time, but now I was prepared—at least enough that it forced me into a crouch but didn’t manage to pull me along. My entire side where it hit me exploded with pain but I forced myself to push through it, the instant kick of adrenaline that came out of nowhere letting me act fast. Using the stock of the rifle once more, I bashed at its face, hitting and breaking its nose and several teeth. A normal human would have reared back from the pain; the zombie came right after me as soon as I took a step back to get more room to maneuver. It was fast—but I was faster.
I didn’t count the bullets I sent into its jaw and neck but it must have been around seven to ten. It may no longer have felt pain, but it sure noticed when it was suddenly lacking a lower jaw, greatly impeding any potential biting action going on. It blindly flailed in my direction, but a well-aimed kick in its middle sent it staggering back, finally putting it in reach of a killing shot—
That I didn’t get to take because right when I had my rifle up and ready, something at the edge of my vision moved. Not by the door to the lab where I knew Gita was standing, likely more terrified of accidentally shooting me than getting chewed up, but coming from the maintenance corridor where my half-assed check had obviously not been enough. I had a split second to decide, and no time for regrets.
Following instinct more than thought, I swung the rifle toward that blur and fired, sending a barely aimed burst into the corridor. I didn’t hit the thing that was coming for me, ducking low in a move I’d never seen in any of the undead, but at least I got a glimpse of it before it rammed its shoulder into my hip and toppled me over backward.
Gita’s assessment had been a good one—it didn’t look like the shamblers I was used to. It was pale, the skin mottled with bruises and lesions but none appearing to be actual decay, more like a rash or a barely healed-over fighting wound—or what I’d had a week before Raynor had cut me up. There wasn’t much padding to speak of to the muscles that moved underneath the skin, hinting at malnutrition, but they hadn’t more than started to atrophy. All of that was in plain sight as it didn’t wear any clothes, but that was the last detail I found interesting right then. It may have been thin going on gaunt, but it sure packed a punch as it hit me, taking me down effectively. Bright, intelligent eyes stared into mine, calculating—there was definitely something still home in that almost-bald head, not just the simple need to feed.
I didn’t think that trying to reason with it would yield positive results.
Instinct and training took over as I used the M16 as a hard, physical barrier between me and the thing that, whatever it was, still tried to take a chunk out of me. Gita shot again—what, I wasn’t sure—and the zombie halted for a second. I used that moment to wrench the barrel of the assault rifle underneath its chin, and pulled the trigger. Resilient fuckers they might be, but nothing survived getting their brains scrambled like this. Blood sprayed everywhere. I didn’t wait to get drenched in it. A kick and roll, and I was back on my feet, panting heavily as I tried to orient myself. Gita must have hit the thing in the leg as it was bleeding all over the floor, the amount of blood way more than I was used to seeing. Hell, even the shambler that used to be Aimes hadn’t bled like that, and it had still been warm enough for the body to almost react like humans did. Then again, I’d gotten the chance to kill one of the super juiced ones several times in a row back in Sioux Falls—I knew that they weren’t exactly reacting like humans should in general.
Speaking of Aimes—the shambler was back, and it obviously saw me as the easier meal, ignoring Gita for the moment. At the end of my patience, I swung the M16’s barrel around and sent a burst into it, making it stagger but not fall. Exhaling hard, I forced my mind to snap into focus, and when I pulled the trigger again, three bullets bit into its forehead, making the zombie jerk—and that was the end of it.
Glancing to Gita, I allowed myself a brief smile—we were still alive after all—but it froze on my face when I saw yet more movement behind her shoulder, coming from that same corridor once more. She whipped around when she saw the alarm on my face, but I didn’t give her the chance to react—or, worse yet, freeze. “We need to get out of here or we’re toast,” I pressed out between gritted teeth, not taking my eyes off that mutant thing slowly stalking into the light spilling out of the lab viewing window furthest from our position. “Get behind me and start backing away toward the airlock at the security checkpoint. And as soon as we’re in that hallway, you turn around and run, do you understand?”
“But they love to give chase—” she started, stopping when I gave a loud grunt.
“They love to beat us to a bloody pulp as well. And eat us. We need strength in numbers if we want to survive.” I hated admitting this, but she was smart. She knew that neither of us counted for full compared to the others. I’d been insanely lucky to kill the first two zombies, but luck wasn’t anything we could rely on.
“Okay, got it,” she said, moving out of my field of vision, her footfalls almost silent. The zombie kept stalking forward just as I started easing back, blindly following the sounds Gita inevitably made. Stalking, stalking...
I was maybe ten feet away from where the hallway narrowed into the airlock when Aimes gave a twitch, then another one—and started to get up. I wasted a second to check—yup, I had hit that undead asshole square in the forehead, and there was plenty of blood and brain matter where it had landed on the floor. Just as my mind was catching up with this, the pale, gaunt freak also started to move, rolling onto its side so it could—slowly but surely—drag itself up into a crouch. This wasn’t right! It wasn’t fair. But sadly, I couldn’t exactly cry foul for them suddenly changing the rules on us.
“Gita? Haul ass, because those undead fuckers didn’t get the memo that headshots should kill them,” I called over my shoulder.
I didn’t get an answer, and I realized that she’d stopped in the small space between the doors of the lock. “I just saw something moving up ahead,” she more whispered than said. “I’m not sure but—”
“More of them,” I offered, agreeing with her unspoken assessment. “Look, we need to get closer to the others. As soon as I’m through the airlock, I’ll try to seal it off. I’ll try to create a diversion, and then we both run and hide. We split, that way we have a higher chance that one of us makes it to the other end of the la
bs.”
“Yeah, because that’s always such a great idea in horror movies,” I heard her chuff under her breath.
“I’m not telling you to be an asshole and abandon me,” I told her tartly. “They stalk us, and they will try to corner us. As long as one of us gets away, she can create another diversion or get help. I don’t like this, either, but all the big, hulking fellows have left us behind so it’s up to us to get us out of this shithole of a situation. Any objections? Then get ready to run.”
All three zombies were now up and moving, slowly drawing closer. I tightened my grip on my rifle even though I knew I’d have to let go of it any second now as I stepped into the airlock. In the past, I’d always felt weird in those relative tight spaces; now it felt way too wide and easy to breach.
“Way ahead is clear,” Gita muttered from right behind me. “Wanna go left or right?”
“Left,” I decided in a split second. Not that I intended to go far at first—I needed to know whether the airlock sealed, and more importantly, remained locked. “Okay. On my mark.” Taking two more steps backward, I started counting down, feeling my entire back light up with perceived itches as I made it into the much larger lab space corridor with not a glance over my shoulder yet.
“Mark!” I called and slammed my hand down on the red button that would make both sides of the airlock snap closed and engage the locks. Air hissed, parts moved—and the freak zombie I’d shot in the head jumped forward, powerful legs propelling it faster and farther than I would have thought possible. I heard Gita take off next to me, but rather than whip around and do the same, I held my ground, shooting at the zombie instead, hoping that the impact of the bullets would somehow slow it down or throw it off target. I hit it in the abdomen and chest, more blood spraying its torso but not doing much else.
Green Fields (Book 9): Exodus Page 22
