Nano Z (Book 2): Salvation

by Brad Knight

  Denise and Sebastian were joined by the scientists on site. Other than a little bit of security, that was all the people allowed in the vault like room. There they would be safe. Anything less than an unreasonable amount of explosives wouldn’t get through the thick steel door.

  “Again!” ordered the leader of the invaders. Undeterred by the failure to blow the door on their first try, the invaders placed some more high explosives. Their second attempt succeeded. Before the smoke cleared they stormed in.

  Galatea Security team members were ready beyond the tunnel and blown open entrance. Only one of them took any damage in the explosion. The rest waited to see silhouettes emerge from the smoke.

  The invaders were stopped in their tracks by the sounds of meat puppet screeches. They saw glowing blue eyes through the smoke. Then a pack of infected chimps came screaming towards them.

  In a flurry of bites, scratches and torn off limbs, the meat puppet chimps massacred the invaders. Galatea Security team members cringed at the sounds of their enemies’ screams and cries. When the smoke cleared they saw the end results.

  Pieces of men and women covered the floors, walls and ceiling of the Los Angeles facility entrance. Thinking that the meat puppet chimps would turn on them, the security team members prepared for a fight. They didn’t want to end up like the massacred invaders before them.

  “Don’t shoot!” commanded Ted. He emerged from behind his security team. “They aren’t going to hurt you.”

  The infected chimpanzees sat down next to Ted. They were covered with gore and as docile as could be. It was a disturbing sight.

  That worked like a charm. “Someone remind me to kiss Dr. Michaels next time I see him,” said Ted.

  With all of the danger out of the way, Ted went to inspect the remains of the invaders. None of them were dressed in any military gear. There were no fatigues or helmets or sewn on American flags. If they weren’t army or marines, who were they?

  “They’re survivors from the city,” Ted heard Sebastian walk up behind him. “Jesus, what a damn mess.”

  “Why did they attack us?” asked Ted genuinely confused.

  Sebastian tried his best not to ruin his well-polished shoes by stepping in the innards of the city survivors. He also avoided the blue eyed meat puppet chimps who lingered around Ted. “They know. Word got out that it was Galatea.”

  That’s not good. But I guess it was inevitable. “How? Did someone squeal?”

  “Doctor Bajwa left almost a month ago. She took up residence with the survivors in Los Angeles,” answered Sebastian.

  “Bawja? Why does that name sound so familiar?”

  “She used to work with you down at the Dallas facility.” Sebastian tip toed around a limbless torso. After that bit of tight rope walking, he was right next to Ted.

  “Bawja. Oh wait, I remember. She’s the one who developed the aerosol delivery system. I remember she had a world class pair of legs on her. We couldn’t have done all his without her. Why’d she leave?”

  “I dunno. Guilt probably. We’ve had assets out in the city to look for her and bring her back into the fold. But none of them came back.”

  “Has the word spread, that it was us?” asked Ted as he took an electronic cigarette out of his pocket and started taking some drags.

  “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”

  “Is the good doctor still in the city?”

  “Last we heard.”

  Ted took the electronic cigarette out of his mouth. “Get in contact with the Arizona and Seattle facilities. Have them send some men. We’re going to kill off the survivors. Then we’re going to burn the City of Angels.”

  Chapter 7

  : The Dark

  Not a very comfortable ride. I guess comfort isn’t high on the marine priority list. Amber bounced up and down on her seat in the bed of the military cargo truck. There were two marines with her.

  The group of marines that Amber traveled with had a little trouble finding the abandoned old brown station wagon that Mack was left in. The sun started to fall down past the horizon. Night approached.

  Amber looked out of a hole in the canvas cover of the cargo truck bed. She recognized the area and the burnt smell coming through from Las Vegas. They were close.

  Shit, it’s dark. I’m sorry big guy. I’ll be there soon. I hope you’re okay with the marines coming back with me. The last bits of sunlight were gone. A blanket of exceptional darkness fell over the Mojave Desert.

  Please still be alive. Please still be alive. Amber prayed that Mack was still alive and well. She’d never forgive herself if she had left him to die.

  The military cargo truck that carried Amber came to a sudden stop. It almost threw her to the floor of the bed of the truck. Outside, she could hear the other vehicles stop too. Then she heard screeches.

  “Stay in here,” ordered one of the marines in the back with Amber. They hopped out.

  Yeah that’s not going to happen. Amber took out her knife and headed for the end of the truck bed. She was surprised by what she saw after getting out. Points of red lights, in pairs, peppered the dark Mojave Desert. By her estimate there must have been hundreds of meat puppets out there wandering in the night.

  Mack! There’s no way he could… not in the shape he was in. Amber found herself unable to move. It was fear. But not for herself. She feared that something horrible had happened to Mack.

  When Amber left him to forage for food and water, he was in terrible shape. She doubted he’d be able to fight off even one or two meat puppets. A whole desert full of them would definitely be too much. If he was still out there, he was either hiding, dead, or one of them.

  “I told you to stay in the truck!” The marine who ordered Amber to stay, yelled at the teen when he saw her outside.

  “Forget her. Turn on your NVG’s. We’re not getting out of here without a fight,” ordered Lt. Spence.

  After moving the night vision goggles attached to their helmets down over their eyes, the marines turned them on. Seconds later they opened fire. Through the brief light of their muzzle flashes, Amber saw meat puppets fall in droves.

  “Give me a gun!” Amber needed some way to protect herself.

  “Are you kidding me? I’m not giving you a gun. You’re a kid.” One of the marines refused to hand over one of his firearms. Suddenly his assault rifle swung over and pointed at Amber.

  “What are…?”

  “Duck!” yelled the marine. She did exactly what he told her. He fired and downed a meat puppet who managed to get within feet of her. “Get back in the truck!”

  “Not until I find my dad!” Amber wasn’t running. Not until she got what she came for.

  “God damn it. Then stay down so we don’t accidentally shoot your ass.” The marine turned his attention from Amber to the advancing horde of meat puppets.

  Is that the wagon? Amber caught the reflection of the marines’ muzzle flashes on the hood and pieces of the broken front windshield of the old brown station wagon. It wasn't far. There were a lot of undead around, but with the marines dropping them like flies, she thought she could make it. She was small and fast, after all.

  Amber somehow managed to dodge the outstretched hands and claws of meat puppets as they tried to grab her. She got splattered by thick black blood as the creatures she passed by were shot. It was a miracle that she didn’t catch a bullet herself.

  When she reached the station wagon, Amber frantically searched the vehicle. One of the doors was missing, and she quickly saw the car was completely empty. That just made her panic even more. Then something grabbed her from behind.

  On instinct, she swung around and tried to stab what she thought was a meat puppet in the head. Someone grabbed her wrist. She turned and saw it was Lt. Spence.

  “Are you out of your god damn mind? They could’ve torn you to shreds. And that’s if we didn’t shoot you first.” Lt. Spence wasn’t happy, that much was obvious.

  Amber and Spence were quickly surrounded by mea
t puppets. The lieutenant had run after her alone. They were lucky that the undead creatures had their tendons and muscles burnt away. None of them were very fast and mobile. It was the only reason the two of them weren’t overwhelmed, because there were still a lot of the creatures between them and the rest of the marines.

  Foot prints, big ones. Work boots. They have to be his. Amber didn’t pay attention to Lt. Spence firing away at the approaching monsters. If they didn't want to give her a gun, then let them do the shooting. She was focused on finding Mack. With her head down she started following his tracks. The fact that she had no experience as a tracker didn’t give her pause.

  “Jesus! Are you fucking kidding me?” Lt. Spence cursed as he saw Amber crawl away with her head down and hands in the sandy dirt. She appeared to be completely disregarding the danger all around her.

  Amber felt wet clumps of dirt, which she thought might have been blood. It quickened her pace. Then her hands hit a void. There was no more ground. Instead there was a hole she couldn’t see inside.

  “Lieutenant!” shouted Amber. He didn’t hear her. Not willing to wait, she considered jumping down.

  How deep is it? Shit. He might be down there and hurt bad. Amber jumped down into the hole in the desert.

  Luckily, the fall wasn’t far. She hit the dirt of the mine floor without sustaining any injuries. She looked around, letting her eyes adjust somewhat to the gloom, but couldn’t make out any details. But even in the almost pitch black, she still recognized him.

  “Mack!” Amber hurried over to her friend on the floor. “Lt. Spence! He’s down here!”

  Amber took Mack by the shoulders, but he didn’t move. So she shook him. Still, nothing.

  “Lieutenant! I need help!”

  After some more frantic gunshots, the hole in the desert lit up. Lt. Spence stood above with the flashlight on his gun highlighting the scene below. The young girl was draped over a rather large dead man. And she hugged him.

  “Is this him?” asked Lt. Spence.

  Amber didn’t answer. She just cried. Spence looked around the hole. There were a couple of dispatched meat puppets scattered in the mine tunnel.

  “I’m sorry he didn’t make it, but we need to get out of here. Right now.” Lt. Spence turned around and emptied his clip into the growing mass of meat puppets.

  “I’m not too late. He’s not dead,” muttered Amber. She rested her head against Mack’s chest. His shirt was soaked in his own blood. And he wasn’t breathing.

  “C’mon! We need to go, now. Don’t make me come down and get you!” Lt. Spence wasn’t exaggerating. If he didn’t get her out of the mine and retreat, they would be overrun.

  Amber didn’t budge. It was the second time in a couple of days that she thought Mack was dead. Just like on the Golden Pony roof, she wasn’t going to just leave him.

  Lt. Spence’s patience approached its end. “He’s dead! And unless we want to be dead too, we need to get out of here.” He was a good man, and had no desire to leave a teenage girl in an abandoned mine among countless meat puppets, but he also didn’t want to die. “Girl! Now!”

  I’m not… wait. Amber felt Mack’s chest slowly move up, then down. She heard him gasp for air. At first she didn’t believe it. Then he took several more breathes.

  “He’s alive! Help me get him up!”

  Lt. Spence gave a look of complete disbelief. In his experience, someone in that bad a shape didn’t survive their injuries. There was only one logical explanation as far as he was concerned. Amber’s father was infected. He was reanimating as a meat puppet.

  “Step back,” said Lt. Spence calmly. He pointed his assault rifle at Mack.

  Amber quickly shielded him. “What the fuck are you doing!?”

  “Killing that thing. Now move!” Lt. Spence didn’t back down.

  “He’s not a meat puppet!”

  “Move!”

  “If you’re not going to help than just leave us alone.”

  Meat puppets started attacking Lt. Spence from behind, distracting him. He struggled to fight them off.

  I have to get Mack out of here. That psycho is going to shoot him. Amber got up, and picked Mack up as far as she could by his shoulders. She started to drag him away from the hole, further into the abandoned mine.

  “You might be the heaviest man left alive in the apocalypse,” she wheezed through labored breathes as she struggled to drag him.

  Mack’s body slowly healed as he was dragged down the slightly rocky dirt floor of the mine tunnel. It was excruciating. And he was confused. The last thing he remembered was fighting for his life against smoking meat puppets.

  “Amber?” asked Mack. He looked up and saw his teenage charge struggle to move him. “Put me down. I need to… put me down.” From his tone it was clear that it was more of a request than an order.

  Amber let him down gently on the ground. She looked around, but couldn’t see a thing. There was absolutely no light.

  “Just let me rest for a few minutes,” said Mack.

  She didn’t feel like arguing. Instead she flopped down into the dirt next to him. Her adrenaline had worn off. Running and dragging had sapped her energy, and she was beat.

  ***

  They sat in the mine for almost an hour. During that time, Mack tried to keep calm as his body healed itself. He grimaced but didn’t make any noise, not wanting to worry Amber.

  Amber was too tired to pay attention, even to the creepy crawlers all around her. In the dark, she fell asleep with her head leaning up on Mack’s shoulder.

  Did I die? Mack had plenty of time to sit in silence and wonder what happened. The last thing I remember is running away from those damn creatures. Everything just went black, like falling asleep. Mack looked round. He realized he could now see. The form of night vision bestowed by the strain of nanite virus Ted injected him with back in the Las Vegas lab kicked in. The lightless mine tunnel looked as bright as day.

  A centipede crawled up with its dozens of creepy little legs onto Mack’s knee. The nearly healed man put his hand in the way of the insect, and it crawled into his palm.

  I didn’t see any white lights, I didn’t see any angels come to take me to heaven or demons to drag me down to hell. There’s no afterlife. Mack clenched his fist. The centipede inside was crushed. Its gooey insides ran down the sides of his hand. There’s nothing after this.

  When he stopped hearing distant gunshots from above, he woke Amber up. He helped her to her feet and they brushed themselves off.

  “Let’s get out of here, girlie girl. Hold my hand.”

  Amber took a few seconds to find it in the pitch black. As soon as she did, he led her further down into the mine tunnel.

  “Can you even see where you’re going?” she asked, after the sleep left her eyes.

  “Yup.” He saw the rocky walls and the ancient looking wood beams holding up the ceiling. Nothing about the place looked safe. Perhaps it’s better that you can’t.

  “How?”

  “I think I’m still infected. Or I was infected again. I don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. I’m alive and don’t have the urge to do you any harm.”

  Amber was silent for a moment. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad you’re infected.”

  “You and me both. I don’t think I’d still be here if I wasn’t.”

  “So you have night vision and you can heal? Cool. What else can you do?”

  “I don’t know yet. I think I’m stronger. And I can hear and see better. Other than that, time will tell I guess.”

  “That sounds pretty awesome. I want to be infected with whatever you got.”

  Mack laughed. It hurt a little, as his ribs hadn’t completely healed yet. “Trust me, you really don’t.”

  ***

  The tunnels were a labyrinth. They twisted and turned in a maze like layout. Several times during their traversal through them, Mack wondered if they’d ever get out. It took another couple of hours of walking through the mine unti
l they saw daylight.

  Amber squinted as she saw the literal light at the end of the tunnel. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see a morning.”

  The closer they got to the mine exit, the warmer it felt. It was if freedom from the cold dark embraced them in a warm hug. Such comfort was in very short supply in the world they lived in.

  There was enough light spilling into the tunnel that Amber didn’t have to hold on to Mack anymore. Momentarily blinded by the bright morning sun, she squinted and partially covered her eyes with her hands. She had no idea where they were. But anywhere was better than in the mine behind them.

  Suddenly they both heard clicks. They knew what caused those sounds. The unique metallic noise was unmistakable. Gun manufacturers must have made the safeties on their firearms that way for a reason.

  “Amber?” asked a stern voice the teenage girl had became acquainted with the previous day.

  “Lieutenant Spence?” Amber’s eyes came back into focus. She saw the third battalion eleventh marines lower their rifles.

  “Hells bells, we thought you two were some of those undead bastards,” said Pvt. Marks. He spit out excess saliva produced by the chewing tobacco in his mouth. It made a reddish brown stain on the pristine desert floor.

  “Is that your father?” Lt. Spence was surprised to see the man he thought was surely dead hours earlier walking around looking like he didn’t have so much as a scraped knee.

  Mack looked at Amber with one eyebrow raised. She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Lt. Spence walked over to Mack with an outstretched hand. “I’m Lieutenant Martin Spence of the third battalion, eleventh marines out of twenty nine palms.”

  Mack shook his hand, and introduced himself. “Mack. How do you know Amber?”

  “We ran into her at a rest area outside of Las Vegas. Willful girl, your daughter.”

  Mack looked askance at Amber, then back at Spence. “That she certainly is.”

  “We’re heading back to Camp Rattlesnake. Do you two want to come with? We got food, water and some other survivors there.”

  Another settlement? The Golden Pony didn’t turn out that great. Neither did that fucking rodeo arena. And these guys are heavily armed trained killers. I don’t see that going well for us.