The Chronos Plague (Book 1): No Time Left

by Talluto, Joseph

  “We weren’t trying to make zombies. We were trying to see if we could alter DNA to continue to replicate, continue the process indefinitely.”

  “Make people immortal, you mean?”

  “No! Nothing like that! We were looking for a way to make life…longer.”

  “Forgive me for being an idiot, Doc, but that sounds like the same thing.”

  “No, it’s not.” She said defensively. “If you had half a brain and actually looked at the research instead of just reading the notes, you’d understand that.” Dr. Rodriguez shot me a look that made me think I had to get her and Steve Castle in the same room together.

  “Why?” I asked.

  Dr. Rodriguez sighed. “Money, mostly, and to see if we could. We had backing from every millionaire on the planet. Political barriers were essentially tossed aside. All on the promise that we could give them longer lives, extended lives.”

  “How extended?” I was curious as to their ambitions.

  “Two, three hundred years.”

  “Holy…”

  “Pretty much. What we were looking to do was essentially keep you where you were for a while, then let nature take over. The younger millionaires were the most eager, as you can imagine. The politicians, they were practically wetting themselves to do us favors,” she said.

  “Hoping for a taste,” I replied.

  “I had three of them propose to me.” She laughed slightly to herself.

  “What went wrong?”

  “The pressure we were under was intense. Pushing harder, looking for the miracle. People wanted it now, and they were taunting us with money. More research, more facilities. Everything had to be now!” Dr. Rodriguez closed her eyes and shook her head.

  “We were human. We were tempted. Eventually, we decided that the delivery system needed to be a virus,” she said.

  “Why a virus?” I wanted to know. I scanned the area as I spoke, watching a man walk by with his dog. He was more interested in his phone than us, or even his dog.

  “Viruses multiply quickly, getting everywhere at once. We had our first successes with it. Mice that lived much longer than they should have, insects that had lifespans measured in weeks as opposed to hours.”

  “Whose idea was it to start human testing?” I asked.

  “That was actually an accident. One of the lab technicians accidentally pricked herself when a test animal jerked suddenly.”

  “What happened to her?”

  “The virus killed her, but it wouldn’t let her die. It just kept her going, like it was designed to do. The cells kept going, but the main functions of the brain were gone. The only things left functioning were the lower functions. Base instincts. We tried, but she was just a machine that wanted to kill and eat. Subsequent experiments proved that it was not just a singular event,” she said. “Then the virus mutated and we were shut down.”

  Three men were moving from the pier, and as I watched, one of them separated from the other two and started walking toward the road. His eyes stayed with us, and I knew it was time to leave. My little stunt with the other two was not going to work for this one if they were hostile.

  “Dr. Rodriguez, we need to move,” I said, taking her by the arm. “Let’s get up the cliff.” I directed her over to the large stairwell that led up the cliff. “Go up there, I’m right behind you.”

  We moved quickly toward the coast road, and as I looked back, I could see the three reconverge and move our way. That put things on the front burner. Dr. Rodriguez eyes were wide as she moved, and she kept her hand in her purse. I had a worry there, as I could as easily get shot by her in a panic as them in a fight.

  “Move, move, move!” I said, hurrying the doctor across the street. The large stone staircase wound its way up the cliff, and there were dozens of people moving around the stairs and stopping at the flat areas to take pictures and selfies. I had an idea, and it was a rather bad one, but it would serve the purpose I had in mind.

  We moved as quickly as we could to the top of the stairs, and when we reached it, I stopped and waited. Dr. Rodriguez pulled on my arm but I shook my head.

  “Up to now, they have been running things. I need to make sure they understand something,” I said.

  “What’s that?” she asked, looking around.

  “They’re not the only side playing for keeps,” I said. I put my hand on my gun under my shirt and waited. The men following me couldn’t see us until they were right at the top of the stairs, and that was exactly where I wanted them.

  “One question, Doc,” I said.

  “What?”

  “Is there a cure?”

  “No.”

  “If you had the facilities, could you do it?”

  “I’d need my colleagues,” she said.

  “Might have to settle for new ones,” I said dryly.

  One of the men came to the top of the stairs and he must have been the new guy because he panicked. He went for his gun and I beat him to the draw by a good couple of seconds. It wasn’t even that close. I shot him in the head and the gunshot caused instant pandemonium. People started screaming, and when the body flew back and landed on a platform, the screaming started in earnest. I was sure the footage was going to be all over the internet as soon as yesterday, and I quickly reholstered my gun and took Dr. Rodriguez out of there, acting like everyone else who was running from the shot. I hoped the other two men got my message. I was not the man they wanted to cross.

  We ran across the street as the sun went down, sirens wailing from every direction, and there were people and homeless running everywhere. I took advantage of the pandemonium to move as quickly as I could over to the other side of the street, and we joined a small crowd that had gathered by the streetlight. We stood for a small amount of time to be considered part of the crowd, asked a couple of questions, and we left slowly, looking across the street the whole time. If anyone in the crowd was questioned by the police, they’d have remembered we were on their side of the street, not running from the scene of the crime.

  We walked back toward the pier entrance, and we didn’t say anything as we did. I was just trying to absorb everything she had told me and what it meant against everything I had seen and discovered. In all, it was really bad news. I made a decision and hailed a cab.

  I held the door for Dr. Rodriguez. She looked at me in askance while the driver said something unintelligible.

  “You stayed hidden, and the only reason anyone was here was because I was. So the problem is on my end, and you wouldn’t be safe anywhere I put you. So do yourself a favor and disappear again,” I said.

  Dr. Rodriguez opened her mouth like she wanted to tell me something, but then the cab driver said something again and she got into the car. Before she drove off, she reached into her purse and handed me a small piece of paper. I put it in my pocket and watched her disappear.

  Back at the hotel, I went into the lobby and nodded at the receptionist. He looked at me for a couple of seconds before nodding back and smiling. I walked over to the elevator and got in, pressing my floor. The second the door closed, I pressed the floor below mine and got out one level lower.

  Slipping over to the stairwell, I went upstairs and looked carefully out. There was a man waiting by the elevator and he had a gun out. Another man was standing on the other side of the elevator.

  I saw enough. I went back down the stairs and made my way toward the back of the hotel and got out through the kitchen exit to the alley.

  It was dark, I was tired, and I had a long road ahead of me. I needed to get back to DC and deal with whoever was trying their best to not only get in my way, but to get me out of the way.

  Chapter 11 – 8.5 Months ATEOTW

  “Above, above!”

  “Got it!”

  “Go, go, go!”

  “Your left!”

  “Got him! We have to move, Andrea!”

  “Shoot better then!”

  “You’re the one with the damn rifle!”

  �
�Baby!”

  The argument only degenerated from there. We had been traveling through Tennessee, avoiding as much as possible any contact with civilization. We hadn’t met too many people, but we’d managed to survive pretty well. Most of our supplies had been through foraging subdivisions. We’d killed a number of zombies on the way, and when we’d reached this little town, it looked like it had been abandoned.

  And it had. Right up until the moment when we were in a small apartment above a store. The previous owners were nowhere to be found, and they had left several boxes of macaroni and cheese and some canned soup.

  It was when we were in an apartment that the zombies attacked. They came out of the woods and side streets, and converged quickly. We stepped outside and suddenly found ourselves fighting for our lives.

  We’d shot our way out of the initial rush, but now we were running. It seemed like everywhere we turned, there was another crowd.

  “Up this way!” I ran up a side street, hoping it would take me on a course out of the main streets.

  Andrea was right behind me, and she took the time to fire a couple of rounds. I glanced back and saw a zombie come out of a building, raising its arms and opening its hideous mouth. I couldn’t take a shot because Andrea was in the way, so I lunged forward, swinging my heavy knife like a club. The blade took the zombie right at the forehead, and cut into the bone and brain at least three inches. The force of the blow stopped the zombie’s torso completely, but its legs reared up and kicked Andrea right in the ass. I couldn’t have planned it better.

  “Hey!”

  “Wasn’t me. Run!”

  I ripped my blade out of the dead skull, amazed once again at the destruction the weapon caused. In all honesty, if I could have found a sword made like this, I’d have no fear of zombie hordes whatsoever.

  We ran past a small truck-stop-looking gas station, and there was actually a truck parked there. But we had no time to see if we could use it. There was another pair of zombies coming out of the snack shop.

  I swung up my .45 and blew a large hole in the first one’s head, while Andrea popped the other.

  “Come on!” I lead the way and we ran up a side street that took us past a small museum and what looked like a small winery. The two was bisected by a canal, and I used that to our advantage. We would be lower than the surrounding area, as the canal was a good ten feet below the road line, which would keep us out of sight for the rest of the zombies that were not out looking for us. Another advantage was the steep sides of the canal would tumble any zombies into the water. By the looks of things, that water was home to a lot more than just zombies, and I wasn’t about to take my chances with that liquid.

  We kept moving and ahead of us a zombie looked over the rim of the canal. He stepped forward and fell down the slope, skidding on his face until he reached the water. He slipped in with little splash, and stayed submerged as we passed.

  Andrea and I both looked at the spot he went in but he never came up. We exchanged a look, but said nothing as we passed. Both us walked a little further from the water, though.

  We kept to the canal for what seemed like a mile, but in truth, it was probably more like half a mile. When your field of view was limited to ten yards of water, thirty yards of grass, and a whole bunch of sky, you tend to get a little muddy with your distances.

  The last zombie that went swimming was the last one we saw, but that didn’t mean anything. We had to get out of the canal. It was getting a little thick with vegetation, and harder to walk through.

  “I’m going up, cover my left,” I said. I climbed the grassy slope, keeping as low as possible. The warm air of the day was starting to give way to the cooler air of the afternoon, and I knew in a few hours we were going to have to be far away from here, especially if the local undead were disturbed and hunting.

  I reached the top but carefully looked up through the grass. Off to my left was the town, and to the right were some hills and a bunch of trees. The town already rolled out the red carpet, so I figured the woods was a better bet. I could see several zombies heading our way, but they hadn’t spotted us yet.

  I relayed the news to Andrea, and she took it about as I expected.

  “Christ! I hate Tennessee! Nothing but woods and hills! Why did you leave Florida? At least there was a beach,” she complained.

  “I met you in Georgia. Where were you headed?” I asked.

  “Shut up.”

  “Let’s get going. You want to stay, stay. You want to head to the beach, I believe it’s east or south. You pick. I’m headed to the woods,” I said.

  I slipped over the top of the canal ridge and moved toward the woods. I didn’t have to worry, I heard Andrea scramble up through the grass and fall in behind me. She wasn’t happy, but if she was angry, she would be angry silently, which worked for me, too.

  The hills were the usual Tennessee fare, slow base with a quick tilt and covered in pine trees. They were too steep for zombies, which made getting up them better for us in the short term.

  About two-thirds of the way up the hill, I took a break to take a look around and orient myself. I knew I was headed west, but the hills and the trees were not my friend in figuring out exactly where I was. I knew we were still in Tennessee, but exactly where I wasn’t sure. There hadn’t been an unusual increase in zombies, which told me I wasn’t close to Nashville or Memphis, but then we might have swung south of both those cities and not been any the wiser.

  The more I thought about things, I wasn’t even sure what season it was. In Florida and Tennessee, winter behaved differently. For all I knew, we were walking into winter with a crap ton of snow and ice headed our way.

  “You rested enough?” Andrea asked. Being younger, she looked as fresh as if she had just stepped out of a nice massage.

  “Not resting, regrouping,” I replied. “We need to cross this hill and keep heading west, which means we need to get over that hill over there,” I said, pointing it out.

  “Wonder what’s in that valley?” Andrea said, looking over at a deep gorge about a mile ahead of us.

  “Probably every zombie that fell off this mountain,” I said.

  “Thought you said this was a hill.”

  “Count your steps as we go down. If you get to a thousand, it’s a mountain,” I said.

  “And if I don’t?”

  “It’s a hill.”

  We moved around the peak and started down the other side. It was hard not to slip, the angle of the hill was such that you had to put a hand out to a nearby tree to arrest your movement, but the pine needles underneath were such that they tried to be helpful and move your feet along. Several times I slipped, and once Andrea fell and started sliding down the hill on the needles until I caught a strap on her backpack. She made the most unusual “Guurrk?” sound that I nearly let her go.

  At around the halfway point of the hill—and Andrea wasn’t going to argue, I had been counting my steps as well—there was a kind of a road. I say kind of a road because it wasn’t constructed like any road you’d find in the lowlands. This one was just a couple of ruts that wound around the trees, and it looked like it had been traveled for generations, The earth in the ruts was as hard as stone, and I had no doubt that once you started your car in these tracks, you’d not have to worry about steering, you’d be just guided along.

  “What you thinking?” Andrea asked.

  “These tracks lead someplace,” I said, kind of stupidly. “But the trick is to figure out which way to head? Going that way, are we heading down the hill or up it? And where do these tracks start?”

  “I think the best course of action would be to just keep going down the hill,” Andrea said.

  “Probably.”

  “But?”

  “It’s getting darker.”

  “So?”

  “Wanna sleep outside again?”

  “No. So which way?”

  I looked at the tracks for a long minute then looked in either direction.

  “
Well. Let’s go to the right. If it starts to climb, we can get off the track and just head down. If it goes down, we’re going the right way,” I said.

  “So you don’t want to see if this road leads to a cabin or something?” Andrea asked.

  “Oh, hell no. What kind of inbred, corn-juice-swilling, bear-meat-eating, slack-jawed, half-witted hill-man do you think we’ll meet?” I asked.

  Andrea smiled. “Eh. What’s another one in the grand scheme of things?”

  “Nice.”

  We walked for about a half-mile, and we could feel the road gradually heading down the hill. It wound around a bit, and there were spots where you could see someone had cleared a deadfall sometime in the past, but it didn’t look like it had any recent activity. In some places, the track went up some steep parts, and I had to marvel at the kind of vehicles that made the trek.

  The setting sun cast a long dark shadow over the valley we were heading into, and I knew we had to get into some place that was relatively safe. I kept my eyes open, and made sure I looked up every once in a while. Suddenly, I saw it.

  “Hold on,” I whispered.

  “What?” Andrea whispered back. She brought the rifle up to the low ready position, ready to fire if needed.

  “I think I may have found what we need.” I pointed to the track, and showed Andrea what it was I was looking at. “This is a larger area, and the stumps over there tell me that they deliberately cleared this area out. See that tree, the one with the string on it?”

  Andrea looked. “Okay, so what?”

  “Follow me,” I said. I walked into the woods, and kept an eye out for string. I saw three more pieces of it before I found what it was I was looking for.

  “There. Our palace awaits,” I said, pointing upward.

  Andrea grunted. “You gotta be kidding me.”

  Up in the air, about fifteen feet off the ground, was a surprisingly large wooden structure. It had used the strategic placement of three trees as supports, and was triangular in shape at its base. It seemed somewhat tall in height, more so than I considered necessary for a deer stand, but it was shelter at this point and a good way to regroup in safety.