Nano Z (Book 2): Salvation

by Brad Knight

  Nano Z: Salvation

  by Brad Knight

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in book reviews.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: The Strip

  Chapter 2: Retrieval

  Chapter 3: What Happens in Vegas...

  Chapter 4: Home Base

  Chapter 5: The Mojave

  Chapter 6: The Board

  Chapter 7: The Dark

  Chapter 8: The City of Angels

  Chapter 9: The Highway

  Chapter 10: Wipe Them Out

  Chapter 11: The Docks

  Chapter 12: The Pacific Northwest

  Chapter 13: The Pursuit

  Chapter 14: Plymouth

  Chapter 15: Burn Baby Burn

  Chapter 1

  : The Strip

  The Golden Pony enjoyed record profits in 2012. Like every other casino, the Pony was going through hard times for the previous decade plus. America was in a recession. Life was hard for almost everybody. Las Vegas wasn’t spared.

  The owner of The Golden Pony, Franklin Durant, desperate for money, came up with a promotion to bolster its sales and number of guests. He guaranteed five times as many jackpot winners from the slot, poker and blackjack machines. That brought in droves of desperate gamblers.

  Any reasonable person would figure that paying out more winnings would drive The Golden Pony deeper into a hole. And they would be right. But Franklin Durant was no idiot. He would be able to run his promotion with financial backing. All he had to do was make a deal with the devil.

  Galatea Systems wanted a location that was both safe and discreet for their Las Vegas labs. They approached Mr. Durant with a check. It had a whole hell of a lot of zeroes on it. The only condition was that he was not to ask any questions about the work done below his casino.

  At first Durant resisted. He didn’t like the idea of not knowing what Galatea was up to. What would people think if they knew there was a laboratory under the casino? More importantly, would the casino lose its license if or when the city found out?

  Much to Franklin Durant’s surprise, Galatea had the labs built in nether regions of The Golden Pony in three weeks without anyone seeing or hearing a thing. He hadn’t even realized that building started until nearly two weeks in.

  There was something unnerving about the clandestine goings on under The Golden Pony. No one who worked there even so much as said “good morning” to the hotel staff. Military types guarded the elevators that led down to the labs. Some guests claimed to hear screaming and crying coming from the vents in their rooms.

  The money generated from the extra patronage and Galatea, allowed The Golden Pony to expand. An expansion, another building, was built two hundred yards away. It housed a parking garage, which was sorely needed. There was a skyway that connected the two, about fifteen stories up.

  “That’s our way out of here,” said Mack. He looked over the edge of the Golden Pony roof and pointed at the skyway that connected the casino to its parking garage. Just how he and Amber would get to the skyway was still undecided.

  Mack was in bad shape. The EMP device that was supposed to cure him and wipe out the nanites in his blood had some side effects. Not only was every moving part in his body sore, but his immune system was also severely compromised. He had a serious fever and was almost delirious. So it was up to Amber to help him move around and get out of the Sin City.

  Amber laid Mack down against an air conditioner. With her small shoulders relieved of his weight, she was able to investigate the potential escape route herself. And she didn’t like what she saw.

  Peeking over the edge of the roof, Amber saw the roof of the skyway. It was at least five stories down. Under the suspended tunnel was an undulating sea of meat puppets.

  Shit. There’s no way. Amber stood at the roof edge as she tried to figure out a way down. Jumping would most certainly result in some broken bones. Plus she had no idea how much weight the top of the skyway could bare. The only path was to climb down.

  I sure as hell can’t carry him down. He’s going to have to climb. Amber walked back over to Mack.

  “We have to climb down,” explained Amber.

  There’s no way in hell I’m going to be able to climb down. “Okay. Let’s do it,” said Mack before he tried to rise to his feet on his own. It was hard. It hurt. And he groaned. But the Viking managed to rise to his feet.

  “You sure you can…?”

  “I can do it. I have to. C’mon let’s go before those things make it up here.” Mack limped over to the roof edge. When Amber tried to help him, he gently pushed her away.

  “Maybe I should go first,” she suggested as Mack sat down on the edge of the roof.

  And have me fall on you? No. “I’ll go first. You follow.”

  There were handholds and footholds on the walls of The Golden Pony. Ledges, windowsills and the fake brick pattern was actually ideal for Mack and Amber to climb. That was if they were both healthy.

  Mack awkwardly turned his body around and lowered his legs down over the edge. His stomach was in his throat until his feet found a ledge below. That feeling of relief didn’t last. For he had a long way to go. And his limbs were already screaming at him, trying to get him to stop.

  Amber watched warily as Mack slowly climbed down. He tried to hide his pain but she could see the grimace on his face as he descended. At any moment it looked like his body would give up on him and she would have to watch him fall. The only thing she could do was pray that he’d make it.

  It took some time, but Mack finally neared the end of his climb. He had about twenty feet to go. His whole body was in agony. Reaching the skyway would ease the pain and his worries.

  Mack’s legs dangled for a few seconds while resting on a windowsill. His fingers lodged into one of the cracks in the fake brick wall. He looked down to assess where to go next. Suddenly the glass of the window in front of his legs shattered.

  Three pairs of arms jutted out of the broken window. They were pale with visible black veins underneath. Both Mack and Amber heard the screeches of meat puppets. To make matters worse, the screeches were coming from two different places.

  Mack felt the puppet hands from the window try to grab his legs. They grasped and scratched, trying desperately to pull in their potential victim. He kicked at them and tried to dodge their attempts.

  Ah fuck! Mack felt his feet slip off the windowsill. His fingers couldn’t hope to bare his weight. Before he could recover, he fell backwards. Luckily for him, he was above the skyway. Instead of plummeting to his death, he hit the skyway with a thud. For a few seconds the world went black.

  Not now! Amber looked behind her. Meat puppets had burst through the door to the roof and were searching for anything living to tear to shreds. She had to start climbing down and do so fast.

  “Mack!” When she started over the edge of the roof, Amber saw Mack on his back on the skyway. Screaming his name didn’t wake him. That added to her sense of urgency.

  Amber hurried her descent. More concerned with getting down fast than safely, the girl slipped a couple of times. Each close call made her heart race. But she didn’t fall.

  When she reached the window that Mack got thrown off from, the meat puppets inside were starting to climb out. Throwing caution to the
wind, she jumped off the wall and landed feet first on the skyway. The jump hurt, but nothing broke.

  There was no time for Amber to acclimate to the throbbing pain in her ankles and knees. The meat puppets were coming out the window, and others looked to be following suit from the roof. To make matters worse, she had to get Mack up and moving.

  “Get up! Get…!” Mack heard Amber yelling. His eyes opened up to see a night sky full of stars. He tried moving but felt a sharp sting in his chest. A couple broken ribs were added to his already considerable list of maladies.

  Mack managed to lift his head up and take a look around. What he saw spurred him to fight through his pain and stand. Amber was trying to fight off several meat puppets with nothing but a knife. He knew they’d eventually either maul or knock her off the skyway roof.

  Amber wildly swung her knife back and forth. If it were human beings in front of her, that might have held them off. But they weren’t people. Not anymore. They were meat puppets. The prospect of being stabbed or sliced was not a deterrent.

  Three meat puppets came out of the window and fell down onto the skyway. Amber managed to push one off right away, but the other two kept coming. Her knife swinging didn’t stop them. One lunged at her with its mouth open, black bloody drool oozing out. She stabbed it in its head. That left one more.

  Mack struggled to his feet. When he managed to get up it was on wobbly legs. They straightened up quick when he saw the predicament that Amber was in. She was trying to dislodge her knife from one of the meat puppet’s head. The remaining puppet was an arm’s length away.

  Suck it up. You can hurt when she’s safe. Mack rushed forward. He almost ran straight into Amber. Instead, he went past her and barreled into the meat puppet. It's head bashed against the wall behind it, leaving a splatter of black blood.

  “Above you!” yelled Amber as she pointed towards the roof of The Golden Pony.

  You’ve got to be kidding me. Mack looked up. A whole group of meat puppets were seconds away from stepping over the edge of the roof.

  Amber ran over and grabbed Mack by the hand. She pulled him in the direction of the parking garage. He stumbled along behind her. The puppets cascaded off the Golden Pony roof. They had no fear. There was nothing to hold them back.

  Both Amber and Mack felt them land on the skyway. Neither dared to look back. While most of the dumb creatures missed it and plummeted down to meet their friends at street level, a dangerous amount hit their mark.

  There wasn’t any way to get inside the skyway. So in order to enter the garage, they had to climb into it. And they had to be fast about it.

  Amber was the first into the garage. She jumped in, scraping her knee on the concrete floor. Mack had a little more trouble than his young charge. But he made it in.

  The meat puppets were hot on Mack and Amber’s heels. It became clear that the creatures would follow them into the parking garage. Without any effective weapons, the only option was to run.

  Mack tried his best to keep up with Amber. The problem was his whole body ached, his broken ribs made breathing painful and unbeknownst to him, he was concussed. With meat puppet screeches echoing throughout the garage and getting closer, he realized he wouldn’t be able to outrun them. He stopped.

  Amber looked back. “What are you doing?” She saw Mack bent over with his hand on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

  “We’re not going to outrun them,” said Mack through labored breaths. “I’m not going to outrun them. You keep going. I’m gonna hide.”

  “We’re going to hide. I’m not leaving you.”

  Mack scanned their surroundings. There were some cars left behind after the nanite virus hit Las Vegas. They started testing the doors.

  After trying four cars, Amber found one with an open front door. She called Mack over, then got in. By the time he reached the vehicle, she’d already opened the back door for him.

  Once inside, Mack tried to be as silent as possible as he closed the car door behind him. He laid down in the back and laid across the seats. Amber did the same in the front. They hoped that the dark of the garage and the car would hide them from their undead pursuers.

  It wasn’t long before the meat puppets caught up. They watched as the ravenous monstrosities passed by the car they were hiding in. One got as close as a couple feet.

  They held their breath. Neither moved a muscle. Both of their eyes were wide and focused on the puppet just outside. In a matter of seconds the temperature in the vehicle seemed to rise as sweat formed on both their bodies.

  The meat puppet closest to the car Amber and Mack hid in, distended its jaw and let out a loud screech. At first they thought the screech meant they were discovered. To their relief, the creature moved on with the rest of them.

  They stayed in the car for another ten minutes, just to be safe. Once they were convinced the coast was clear, Amber got out. When she was certain that they were alone, she helped Mack out of the backseat.

  As he exited the car, he felt a sharp stabbing sensation in his midsection, below his chest, above his stomach. His breathing became labored. He was in trouble. But he couldn’t reveal to Amber just how hurt he was.

  Careful to limit the noise they made, they slowly made their way down through the parking garage. The duo stuck to the shadows, and they stayed near any cars, just in case they had to hide again.

  When they reached the exit of the parking garage, Mack leaned up against a wall as Amber checked to see if it was safe for them to leave. Luckily they found themselves in a side-street, separate from the meat puppet infested strip. One end was open to the popular row of casinos. The other ended abruptly with the back wall of a building.

  A cop car! Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some weapons in there. Amber spotted an abandoned police patrol car. It wasn’t that far away. All she and Mack had to do was reach it without alerting the infected that were within view.

  “All right,” said Amber as she popped her head back into the garage in order to retrieve Mack.

  She walked slowly through the pitch black street outside the Golden Pony parking garage, towards the cop car. An all too familiar and atrocious smell hit her nostrils. It was the smell of death, rot and decay.

  Mack struggled to keep up. None of his afflictions were better since the roof and EMP. He felt as if he was dying. There was no way he could show or tell those thoughts to Amber. At least not until they escaped Las Vegas, which looked much harder than Dallas.

  That’s just gross. Amber discovered where the terrible smell was coming from when she and Mack reached the abandoned car. A police officer laid against the side of the driver’s side door. He was almost torn in half. Only a bit of rotting skin kept his upper body attached to the lower.

  Amber kicked the dead cop’s corpse just to make sure it wasn’t a resting meat puppet. Satisfied, she pushed it with her foot off the door of the patrol car. In the new infected word there was little time for respecting the dead. All that mattered was not suffering the same fate.

  Mack leaned against the trunk of the vehicle as Amber entered through the driver’s side door. He stared down the street at the opening to the puppet infested Strip. None of the creatures seemed to notice them.

  Amber frantically searched the abandoned police car looking for anything she could use as a weapon. Her knife wouldn’t cut it if she was going to protect herself, and Mack. After searching the front seats and glove box, she found no weapons. Doubting she’d find anything in the segregated back seats, she got out. Before doing so she popped the trunk open, which startled Mack.

  He moved out of the way as Amber walked over to the trunk and opened it. Inside there was a black tactical shotgun. Next to it there was a box of slugs.

  Once she retrieved the shotgun, she started searching the rotting corpse of the bisected police officer. Mack gave her a queer look, cutting through his pain.

  “What are you doing?” he asked in a hushed voice. “He doesn’t have a gun. I already checked.”

/>   “I’m not looking for a gun,” answered Amber without looking up.

  “What then?”

  Amber popped up. She dangled keys in her hand. “A ride,” she said with a smile.

  I can’t drive. Wait, she doesn’t think that she’ll… “You’re not driving,” said Mack.

  “Of course I am.” Amber walked back over to the still open driver’s side door. “You can’t. Look at yourself. Now get in.”

  Mack may not have liked the idea of being driven by a child. But Amber was right. He was in no shape to get behind a wheel. Instead of arguing he decided to sit in the passenger seat.

  “Have you ever driven before?” asked Mack, even though he knew the answer. Amber was only fourteen. Of course she hadn’t.

  “No. But I guess there’s no better time to learn. Right?” Amber smiled at him. It was forced.

  “Give me the shotgun. Turn the key. Then put the car in drive,” instructed Mack.

  “Which way are we gonna go?”

  Mack looked down both sides of the street. “Doesn’t look like we got a choice, girlie girl.”

  Amber gave Mack the shotgun and started the engine. He rolled down his window and stuck the gun out of it.

  The sound of the police car starting got the meat puppets' attention. Suddenly the creatures on the strip turned towards the narrow dead end street that Amber and Mack were parked on. They screeched and started sprinting towards the headlights.

  “Let’s go!” yelled Mack.

  Amber struggled to find the right gear, even though the police cruiser had automatic, not manual. First she put it in neutral making the wheels spin in place. She moved one down and put the car in reverse, sending it careening towards the wall at the end of the street.

  “D for drive! D for drive!” yelled Mack. Ignoring his intense discomfort, he leaned out the passenger side window, aimed his shotgun and unloaded a slug into a meat puppet who was mere feet away.

  Amber looked down at what she was doing. She moved the gear shift into “D” for drive. Not having any knowledge about how to drive, she pushed the accelerator all the way down. There would be no gradual acceleration.