Z-Virus

by M. D Khamil

  There was still no sign of Prince. I wonder if he had gone to another floor upstairs. I just wish that he remembered what I taught him. No eating or drinking anything that smells like the living dead. He’s a smart dog. He’ll know if danger approached and what to do if I'm not around. I’m lying on my back and took off my mask, still catching my breath, trying to inhale more air into my lungs. I closed my eyes for a moment thinking of what should I do next. Should I continue my search or should I just quit, find Prince and went home? I have gone here, I should have finished what I have started. There’s no turning back now. I must have it. Just as I about to stand up, a clicking sound of a gun was heard and a gun was pointed at the back of my head.

  "Get up, don’t try anything stupid or I’ll blow your head off. Turn around." I saw a young lady, looks younger than me, maybe about two or three years younger, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. She dressed up all in black leather with black boots. She has a bright blonde hair tied up in ponytail. She’s well equipped. I could see her gears around her hips. Some I’ve never seen before. Her body figure was as beautiful as a model. I guess it’s the leather. "Be careful with the rats, they’re not normal." She said with a sharp glance towards my eyes.

  Chapter 4

  New Companion

  "Put your hands behind your head. Who are you? Why are you here? Who sent you? Who do you work for?"

  "Such a lovely meeting but lady, that’s a hell of a lot of questions to start with."

  "Shut up, believe me I’ll pull this trigger if you don’t. Who do you work for? Answer me."

  "Ahh, well first of all I don’t work for nobody and I'm on my own, and my other friend whom I lost few minutes ago."

  "You’re not alone?"

  "Right you are ma’am."

  "Then, he’s probably be dead. You said you don’t work with anyone, what’s with the uniform?"

  "Oh I forgot about that. Why don’t you put the gun down first and let us have a comfortable conversation? I'm not your enemy. It would be better if we talk nicely."

  "We are."

  "Come on, trust me."

  "Why should I trust you? What made you believe that you’re not going to attack me?"

  "Because I believe we're in the same side, you can take and strip off my weapons if that makes you happy. There're not so many of us left. No use to fight each other."

  I saw her eyes carefully examining me from top to bottom. She doesn’t looked like a normal young lady to me, no I don’t mean like she’s one of them but she’s just different. She looked a little bit muscular on some parts of her body. Her biceps and thighs obviously show the signs. She lowered the gun that she pointed at me slowly.

  "I trust you." She finally said it.

  "Thank you." I replied.

  "But that doesn’t mean I trust you completely. Now what lead you here?"

  "I am looking for the cures. To fix this. This deadly pandemic."

  She giggles then burst into laughter.

  "What’s so funny?" I gaze toward her irritatedly.

  "Cures? There’s no such thing as cures."

  "What?"

  "There’s no cure. This is not some normal plague that can be cured with any kinds of drugs or medicines."

  "Then we’re doomed."

  "Not really." she replied as if nothing serious was happening.

  "Not really? Is that the best what you could think of? Not really? This is not a game. We both could be the last humans right now on earth. No cures, then yes to death!"

  "Hey! I don’t come here for nothing alright!? Yes, there’s no cure yet to be found to this deadly pandemic. But there is something hidden here that I need to find out. Something that will lead us to save our kinds!"

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "I don’t even know yet, but we have to go to the top most floor of the building, where lies all the answers."

  "What we could probably find up there if not bunch of the living dead?"

  "Depends on our luck. Something tells me that we should go to Dr. Edward O’Neil’s office on the top most floor."

  "So it’s a deal. We’re working together now?"

  "Temporarily."

  "I’m Travis."

  "I have no intention of telling my name to you."

  "Okay, then tell me what do you know about this plague?"

  "The Black Death and Ebola", "It has something to do with it. Only now that it is on a whole new different level."

  "What do you mean?" I desperately wanting to know more.

  "The scientists were crazy. They started it. It’s their own technology. If only they didn’t fiddle and play with something they don’t understand this wouldn’t have happen."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Some of the scientists here formed a secret group of their own. Tightly secured from government ears. They experimented on some weird stuff that were illegal. Creating and mixing DNA to create new form of mutation and evolution kind of thing. I believe this plague was a failed experiment. I heard about them discussing about Project Z-Virus. The Black Plague and Ebola was their first experiment. Dr. Edward O’Neil and his partner Dr. Richard Ross has succeeded inventing a secret formula and technology that supposed to be the cure to any disease there is on earth. The serum was in inspection, experiment and tested multiple times for twelve years before it is officially launch. Sadly enough the news of missing scientists whom one of them happened to be Dr. Richard Ross interrupted Dr. O’Neil's emotion for several years but life must go on and to achieve their goals. It’s a technology known as Newton’s Nano Metabolism, in the form of liquid. The Nano-M has static powered energy that kills the disease from the inside. Last time they tried it on a sick dog that they have injected with the Black Plague and Ebola. Then they tested this bio technology by injecting it into the dog. That’s how it all started. How the Nano-M reacted and stabilized to form a new type of deadly virus to the Black Plague and Ebola is still unknown and a mystery."

  "How do you know all of this stuff? Who are you?"

  "That’s none of your business. We must go now or would you prefer staying here till you get eaten and become one of them? I will gladly more than happy to shoot you."

  "Not a chance. Let’s move now."

  Chapter 5

  Letter

  We started moving quickly and get into the elevator of the first floor. I thought we should be grateful that the electricity were still working. I couldn’t imagine if there was no power, it would be dark as hell and we wouldn’t be able to walk or run as freely as we could now.

  "Fifteenth floor quickly!" said the lady. I pressed the button. The orange light on the button glew and the top number of the elevator door started to change according to each floor we were getting on to. While waiting for the elevator we rode on to reach the top most floor of the building, I started the first conversation with her. "Are you alone? I mean like alone. Family? Friends?" I said while waiting for her reply.

  "Why does it bother you? Nothing fancy about my life." She replied like an annoyed person.

  "I just need to know. You know, sharing one’s problem tends to ease a person’s misery. Telling your problems might does the job, if not many but a little." I looked at her and she seemed upset and hesitating.

  "I was born without knowing who my parents was, I was raised in an orphanage. Until one day a single father adopted me. I was only fourteen. He taught me many things about life, patience and struggles. We had a perfect life. He was like everything to me. Eventhough I don’t have a mother, the love of a father is enough for me. Until one day, our home was robbed by a gang of criminals. He told me to hide in the attic and so I did. He fought off those criminals. When I thought everything was already at peace I came down, only to find my father was dead with a knife stabbed right through his heart." I saw her eyes were turning red. I feel so bad asking about it. I must have had forced her to recall her dark memories.

  "I was totally disturbed. I was angry. I want to avenged my father
’s death. So I chased after them, but it was too late, they had already ran away. I tripped my self just in front of our house yard. The rain was heavy that night, thunder clapping and zapping through the night sky. I cried and screamed out loud. My heart broke into thousand pieces. That was when a man in a black trench coat with a hat and black mask reached me and . . ."

  "Tink!" We had reach the top floor.

  "And?" I asked.

  "We have to go now and do the search right away." She was avoiding my question and started walking out of the elevator. I followed her just a few inches behind her. She has her gun ready and so am I. I looked at her gun again, she has it on and I started searching on my belt. She noticed what I was doing. "What are you up to?" She said.

  "I am looking for my silencer. You had it on your gun so I think I should have it too." I replied.

  "You should have been prepared before you get here."

  "I know. I’m sorry." I feel rather like an idiot to be educated by someone much younger than me. "So how we do find this Dr. O’Neil’s office?"

  "There. Just ahead of us." She pointed with her index finger. Again I feel like a moron. I ask things without looking or analyzing around me first. Good job Travis. So much for your hero story. The door obviously labelled written with a name Dr. Edward O’Neil. She went ahead of me first and opened the door slowly. It was pretty much annoying that the door produced creaking sound like an old wooden house. His office was quite huge. In the middle where lies his desk were full with files and paperworks. Through the right was standing four wooden shelves filled with books. Most of the books were references, all science related books such as chemistry, biology and physic. There were some mathematic books as well also astronomies, medication, animals and some books regarding to Artificial Intelligence and Case Classified Area Fifty-One. She was right. These scientists were mad. To the left was a massive white board where I guess Dr. O’Neil’s wrote his formulas about his new foundation recepies. At the back of Dr. O’Neil’s desk was a massive potrait of all the scientists and staff of Newton Corp. Of course in the middle was Dr. Edward O’Neil and his partner Dr. Richard Ross. They were smiling, faces showing a true success. But something on the potrait attracted my attention. "Who was that? The man in the left back? He dressed and wears differently than the others." I tossed the question to the lady.

  "That was Dr. Victor Lockhart. He worked alone and never socialized with the other scientists. I heard rumours about him. He never succeeded in his lab tests and experiments. He envied Dr. O’Neil and Dr. Ross success. Bad tempered as hell. Strangely enough he went missing for twelve years before this pandemic started, the same year when my father was killed and the missing of Dr. Richard Ross."

  "Where did they go to?" I wondered.

  "No one knows but some of Dr. Lockhart colleagues told Newton’s staff he was in distressed and committed suicide. He left a note on his desk in his office. Saying that he’s already in Heaven and for Dr. Richard Ross, he’s just vanished. No news, no anything."

  "That’s really sad. He could have done something better than killing himself."

  "No one knows how hard it is to be that someone not until you were in his or her place. I used to experience the same thing. A cut on a skin will heal as time passes by, but a cut in the heart will stay, and no medicine can heal that."

  I can understand why she said that. It was not easy to be her or as Dr. Lockhart. But I am glad she is much wiser than that distressed doctor. The missing of Dr. Ross sounds more tragic to me. There must have been some serious conflicts back then. I saw she started searching the cabinet, then the desk and the drawers. I was looking through the shelves just in case something was hidden there.

  "It’s locked." She said. "The last drawer is locked." She added. She pointed her gun to the drawer directly to the key hole. “Bang!” She had shot it.

  "What is it?" I asked her.

  "There’s a letter. Written by Dr. O’Neil himself." She picked up the letter from the drawer. On the letter it wrote, "To those who found this, this is your answer."

  She opened the letter and it read,

  “So now that you are in possession of this letter, whoever you are, if you’re a good person then you’ll save this dying planet. But if you’re an evil person then it means this is the end of days. I wrote this letter for a reason. I know that some day and some times in the future bad things would happen. It is a plan that I’ve been keeping to myself. Just in case. If you read this, then that bad thing had already happened. I created something that would save humanity from extinction like diseases. Eventhough I succeeded, I also invented something out of the public eyes. I worked this out with my partner Dr. Richard Ross and kept it somewhere in the city. But to get it, you need the pendant. The pendant was with my wife Elizabeth, but she died of cancer I couldn’t find the cure. She wore it around her neck and is buried with her in her grave. Look out for her grave and hopefully you’ll find the answer.”

  Dr. Edward O’Neil

  "We need to dig up her grave. There is only one graveyard in Greendale and that is Raven’s Hill."

  "This is insane. After all the trouble getting here we need to dig up a dead woman’s grave?" I seriously going about crazy. "We don’t know what might wait for us out there! It’s the grave! Bunch of dead people! How do we sure that they are not infected or we could be saved there? What are the chances?"

  "You have such a big mouth Travis, you’re acting like a little girl. Really."

  "Excuse me?" Those words stung me.

  "Enough okay? We have a job to do. I understand your worries but we have to do this."

  "How can you be sure he was telling the truth in that letter? What if he intentionally wrote the letter to distract us from searching this room? The answer probably here!"

  "Yeah, and we already got it." She raised the letter she was holding on her left hand.

  "I know Dr. O’Neil well. He wouldn’t play games with this. Now are you coming with me or we can go separate ways now?" She said with eyes full of determination.

  "Fine!" I finally gave up protesting.

  "Good." She walked towards the door and started opening it. Suddenly something burst forward as soon as the door was opened. “Duck!” I shouted to her. She responded immediately and avoided the attacked by jumping and crouching to the left side. They were two, three then four coming inside. One a woman and three others were men. The undead. I signaled the lady not to make a noise. The walkers were blind but it was still unfortunate for us that we were within three meters range and not making a foot step noise seem impossible. I had an idea. I picked up the fallen books from the floor and started throwing them one by one at the right back of the desk. They reacted to the sound as soon as the books dropped to the floor. As they were started running to the books, we rushed towards the door going straight for the elevator. I ran first then followed by her. The walkers were so fast that one of them caught the lady’s hair and pull her backwards. “Oh no you don’t! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!” The sound from my silver desert eagle was so loud. I had no idea how I did it, but I shot every one of them right to their skulls. They were pulverizing before they stop trembling and eventually died. I fucked up their brains. I didn’t even realized how did I switched my gun with the silencer, with my silver desert eagle. Everything went too fast.

  "You didn't tell me that you’re good with guns." She said while lying breathlessly on the floor. "I guess I never did." I was shocked too you know.

  "Thank you." She thanked me with a weird smile.

  "Not a big deal. So now we’re even." She was smiling when I said the words. "Come on, let me help you get up." I reached for her hand and went inside the elevator.

  "Claireese." She said. "Claireese Johnson."

  "What?" I was dumbstuck. She was only smiling.

  "Oh! Well . . . Nice to meet you Claireese."

  "Just called me Claire."

  "Right!" I pushed the ground floor button and the elevator started to descent.


  Chapter 6

  The Grave

  As soon as we reached the ground floor, we went out for my truck. From the far view I saw something in the back of my truck, jumping and moving about left and right. It took my eyes some times to adjust the view from the far distance. To my surprise it was Prince!