The BIG Horror Pack 2

by Iain Rob Wright

  "You're a medic. You must have seen that sometimes a rifle does more damage than it needs to."

  Miller didn’t reply, but he at least seemed to think about it.

  Lexi left Miller and went back to the others. The fires were starting to diminish and they were able to edge their way forward carefully and move onto the next section of path. Whoever had attacked them was apparently long gone, but had left in a hurry when Miller and Gellar fired upon him. Stashed up against the side of the carousel was a collection of petrol bombs, along with a Grand Galaxy jacket and another company tablet like the one they'd found at the reception desk. Trent grabbed the tablet immediately and used his comms unit to hack into it. A moment later he was smiling.

  "What have you found?" Lexi asked.

  "CCTV recordings for the park. Looks like the guy was downloading the security feeds. Maybe he wanted to delete them; cover up evidence or something."

  "Are they still viewable?"

  "Some are."

  Boss came over, having heard the conversation. "Good. Let's finally find out what happened to this godforsaken place."

  Trent selected the first file within the folder and hit PLAY.

  Chapter Three

  The video feed began at the entry terminal, a hive of activity. People came and people went as normal, no fear or confusion on their faces, only joy and excitement. Trent went ahead and opened several more video files and displayed them all side by side in little windows – the hotel and spa, the amusement park, the casino, the waterpark – but Boss told Trent to keep going until he found a feed from the cargo bay. The only clues they had pointed to the arrival of that mysterious blue crate.

  Hopper whistled. “Have you seen how many zones there are? Talk about needle in the frikkin’ hay-”

  “There,” Lexi interrupted. “Trent, you’ve got it.”

  Trent brought up the window she was pointing at and everyone leaned in closer to get a look. A small group of warehouse employees milled around the cargo area, moving from bay to bay with clipboards tucked beneath their arms. They were accompanied by fastidiously working humanoids.

  Boss pointed towards the top of the screen. “That’s where we found the crate full of rotten meat.”

  Lexi squinted. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Can we zoom in?”

  Trent did as he was asked and zoomed in, but he said, “The humanoids are still functioning here. I’ll fast forward to the point when they go offline”

  The humanoids sped up on screen, whizzing around as the video was forwarded, but then suddenly slumped over into the deactivated positions they had been in earlier.

  Lexi chewed at her lip.

  Hopper said, “Looks like we’ve found the point where everything screwed up.”

  One of the humanoids stood by the unopened blue crate and began violently shaking from side to side. A worker appeared, looking very much like the man who had warned them in the first video, and pushed the humanoid aside. He stared at the crate and even scratched his head. It was obvious the man was confused. After looking around for help, he shrugged and turned his attention back to the crate. He ran his fingers over the lid, perhaps reading the label printed on top of it.

  “Look at the humanoid,” Lexi said.

  The humanoid unit had stopped its violent shaking and was now watching the man beside the crate. Its eyes had changed from yellow to red.

  Lexi frowned. “What’s happening to it?”

  Trent shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

  The man reached into the blue crate, unaware of what the humanoid was doing behind him, and pulled something out of it – a small black device, He seemed disgusted by something that was now coating his arm. He sniffed at his wrist, grimaced, and then peered back inside the crate. Without warning, a chalky, alabaster cloud engulfed the man’s face, causing him to drop the small black unit back into the crate, where Hopper would later find it. The man staggered backwards, his hands held to his face, coughing and hacking as he retreated out of view.

  “Zoom out,” Boss ordered. “Find him again.”

  Trent did as he was told and managed to find another camera showing the spluttering man. This time there was also another man – one they all recognised as the ill-fated janitor who was now lying dead where they’d found him. He came to his colleague’s aid and quickly begun wiping at his face with a rag pulled from his pocket, trying to clean away the chalky substance that had erupted from the crate.

  A few seconds later, the janitor dropped the rag and stumbled backwards himself, with his hands to his own face, just like the man who had opened the crate.

  “Whoa,” Hopper said. “What just happened?”

  Lex leaned closer to try and make out what was going on in the grainy picture. “All the billions spent to create this place and they can’t afford decent cameras.”

  “There’s some sort of disturbance,” Trent muttered. “It must have been the device we found in the crate.”

  The original man in the video now walked the length of the cargo bay. He was in clear discomfort, coughing with every step. The Janitor rushed over to the sinks, splashing water on his face.

  “If that was the man’s only interaction with the janitor…” Miller frowned. “Whatever this is is highly contagious.”

  “See if you can pick him back up,” Boss told Trent when the man disappeared off camera again. “If he went out into the public sections of the park…”

  Trent flicked between the various feeds. Occasionally he’d stumble across the man, but no sooner would they have him, than he would disappear down another corridor or around a sudden corner. Eventually they tracked him down to a room marked: SECURITY.

  The man practically fell into the room, his face still buried in his hands. He dropped to his knees and rolled onto his back where he started to writhe about in pain. There was no sound, but it was clear the man was suffering. Then – just like that – he went limp. His hands slumped to his sides.

  “Dead?” Gellar mused.

  Lexi shook her head. “Can’t be. You saw the video log he left. He was sicker than he is now. It was filmed after what we’re watching now.”

  “From now on, this man is Patient Zero,” Boss said. “We need to find him – dead or alive.”

  Trent fast-forwarded the video feed. Ten minutes after the man had dropped to the floor, he suddenly sat bolt upright.

  Hopper leaned closer to the screen. “Is he…laughing?”

  Patient Zero was definitely laughing. His arms wrapped around his knees and he rocked backwards and forwards, giggling hysterically.

  “What the hell has gotten into him?” Gellar asked.

  Lexi exhaled. “Nothing good.”

  Patient Zero got up and went over to the bank of computers in the security room. He lingered in front of them for a moment and then sat down. It seemed like he was recording a video, perhaps the video log they had watched earlier – he certainly seemed much sicker now after only another ten minutes or so. Trent took the opportunity to jog the video forward. Patient Zero zipped all around the room in fast motion – sometimes standing still, other times sitting at the console recording more messages. The creepiest section of the video was when he was standing directly beneath the security camera, staring up at them with a grin on his face. Trent hit fast forward again until Patient Zero disappeared from the room.

  “If we go down there,” Hopper said. “I’d wager we find his body slumped somewhere. He has to be dead.”

  “If he isn’t, he will be soon,” Miller said. “Clearly something was inside that crate that has affected his brain. He’s displaying signs of delirium, likely from fever, and his bleeding skin suggests a massive auto-immune response. If not for the incredibly short symptom progression I could name several likely viruses, but this… It’s something I’ve never seen before.”

  “Great,” Hopper said. “Just…great.”

  Chapter Four

  “Where is that security office?” Boss asked Trent.<
br />
  “It’s in the administration sector, past the Forbidden Planet sector.”

  “Then that’s where we’re heading. The comms centre is near there as well, right?”

  Trent nodded. “It’s all bunched together at the back of the facility. There’s a monorail that goes there if we head east towards the Ice Lands sector.”

  “Too risky,” Boss said. “We’ll stay on foot. I don’t trust anything with a computer in this place.”

  “Okay, then,” Miller said, adjusting his rifle strap around his neck. “Let’s get moving.”

  “Eyes open,” Boss said. “Gellar, Miller, you see that lunatic who tried to firebomb us, you shoot to kill. If it turns out to be Patient Zero, all the more reason to take him down.”

  Miller raised his rifle. “Copy that.”

  They spread out, exploring the park in an advancing line. Lexi headed over to a children’s Helter-skelter and glanced up its spiralling staircase. It made a good lookout, so she decided to head on up. First, she shouted out to Gellar to let her know where she was going.

  “Okay, be careful,” Gellar shouted back.

  Lexi started up the clanging steel steps and picked up speed as she climbed. For a moment she felt like a child again, wanting to rush to the top and leap down the slide screaming. She always dreamed of places like this, as a kid, but her father had always been so busy, hardly ever home. She had never gone to theme parks, let alone somewhere as magnificent as Grand Galaxy.

  Halfway up and she was already out of breath. Cosmonauts were fit and healthy, but they had little need for physical endurance. In fact, spending time in Zero-G could make a person weak and frail. She was suffering the consequences now as she huffed and puffed.

  A short while later, nearing the top, she started to smell something off. It was a foul odour and made her wrinkle her nose and breathe through her mouth. She had to fight the urge to gag.

  The others were still conducting their own searches down below. Gellar was rooting through a topiary garden, passing between bushes shaped like planets and spaceships, and benches built from futuristic tubes. Further on, Hopper and Trent were chatting to one another outside of a dark ride. The octagonal building possessed a banner reading: Intergalactic Agency for Pest Control.

  Her father was nowhere to be seen, but there were so many rides and buildings that it would be easy for him to wander out of sight. The same was likely true for Miller, who was also absent from Lexi’s view.

  Lexi carried on up the last of the steps, covering her nose with her sleeve as the smell got stronger. When she was about to reach the top, she paused and tried to take as deep a breath as she could without gagging, then she stepped up onto the platform.

  Part of her had expected to find a body – only a rotting corpse could smell so bad – but what she hadn’t been expecting to find was such an abhorrent mess. The female body slumped at the top of the slide was desiccated, torn open in the middle and leaking guts and fluids everywhere.

  Reflex took over and Lexi gagged hard, spewing the meagre contents of her stomach onto the metal floor grate. She had come up there for a reason, to survey the area, so she straightened up and went over to the railings, deciding that the body was evidence to be put aside until she had assessed the entire scene. She leaned over and almost threw up again, but managed to calm herself down this time. Breathing slowly, trying not to let the stench overwhelm her, she stared out at the park below.

  She managed to spot her father, standing on an elevated queuing platform for a themed Waltzers ride. Lexi could still see Gellar nearby and also spotted Trent and Hopper again; they were still chatting. Miller was again nowhere to be seen.

  Lexi stared out further at the next sector of the theme park. The arched entryway named it ASTEROID FALLS and it seemed to be a rocky, water-based area, with a mingling of red canyons and shimmering rivers. The centrepiece was a large flume ride occupied by a dozen boats shaped like life rafts that were intended to travel along the sleepy canyons before being dumped down into the churning waters of a wide rapid.

  Lexi finally managed to locate Miller. He was wandering next to a large, spinning contraption called The Driller. He was scanning around with his rifle, desperate to find a target. Stupid fool, Lexi thought. They were all supposed to stick together, but Miller had forged ahead, eager to find his prey. The guy was trigger-happy. Most Space Marines were.

  Lexi spotted movement further ahead, almost at the far end of the Asteroid Falls sector. In fact, she spotted a lot of movement. She placed a hand over her eyes and squinted. The park was huge, and what she was seeing could’ve been happening a half-mile away, but whatever it was it was quickly getting closer.

  The park’s guests – at least, some of them – about a hundred men and women in total, were stumbling towards Asteroid Falls. Miller would encounter them first, as there was only a rollercoaster and a couple of shops between him and them, but the crowd was moving quickly, like a writhing mass of insects.

  Lexi was about to shout out, to at the very least get a warning to Gellar who was right below her in the garden, but before she even got chance to open her mouth, something seized her ankle. She stumbled away from the railing and almost tripped, kicking out to get her ankle free. A scream escaped her lips when she saw the shredded corpse rise up from the ground to face her. There was no way the woman could still be alive. It was impossible.

  The woman seized Lexi by the throat and began to squeeze. Lexi squirmed and struggled, even more when the woman tried to bite her face. Blood and guts spilled all over the floor, making it slippery under foot and hard to fight back.

  “Lexi?” The shout came from below, from Gellar. There was no way the American would make it up all of the steps in time to rescue her, though.

  Lexi was fighting for her life.

  She brought her knee up to shove the bleeding woman away, trying to keep the rotten jaws from biting her. Once she had a little breathing room, Lexi used her arms to try and pry the choking hand away from her throat. But the fingers held on like a vice. Lexi was running out of breath, her vision beginning to spot with black patches and twinkling lights. She felt pressure in her forehead as she strained to catch a breath.

  The woman made to grab at Lexi with her other arm, but Lexi ducked. She was still unable to get free of the hand around her throat, though, and began to tremble as she started to lose consciousness. Her knees buckled and she stumbled backwards, dragging her attacker with her. The woman tried to bite her again, this time lunging at Lexi with her entire bodyweight. Lexi’s legs completely gave way and she fell to the ground. Her momentum dragged her attacker off balance with her and the woman tumbled forwards. She hit the safety rail and carried right on over the top of it. Her arm twisted and snapped off at the elbow, the hand remaining around Lexi’s throat, but the rest of her went plummeting out of sight.

  Lexi took a desperate gasp of air. The hand around her throat had gone limp, the fingers no longer squeezing. She tore the disgusting thing away from her and tossed it aside.

  Gellar appeared at the top of the steps finally, panting hard and looking panicked. She had her rifle at the ready. “Are you okay?”

  Lexi rubbed her throat and took deep breaths. “No, I’m not okay. A dead woman just attacked me.”

  Gellar raised an eyebrow. “What did you just say?”

  “There’s no time to explain.” Lexi hopped up and went over to the railing. The horde of men and women were still getting closer, almost on top of Miller now. The soldier was still searching around, oblivious to the approaching crowd.

  “Who are those people?” Gellar asked, joining her at the railing.

  “I don’t know, but Miller is about to find out. We need to warn him.”

  Chapter Five

  Lexi got down the spiral staircase twice as fast as she had gone up it. Gellar was right behind her, shouting into her radio. “Miller, come in, over… Damn it, he’s not answering.”

  “Keep trying,” Lexi urged, heading a
way from the Helter-skelter and towards where she had last seen Trent and Hopper chatting. She was glad to find them still there.

  Hopper saw her racing towards him. “Whoa, what’s wrong?”

  “There’s a crowd of people coming right our way. Miller is in the next sector. They’ll be on him any minute.”

  Trent frowned. “A crowd? Do you mean the park guests?”

  “I don’t know. A woman attacked me at the top of the Helter-skelter. If the people coming towards Miller are the same as she was…”

  “Okay,” Hopper said. “Let’s go get him.”

  “Where’s my dad?” Lexi asked, then corrected herself. “Where’s Boss?”

  “I’m here,” he said, marching up behind them. “I heard what you said. Are you okay?”

  Lexi noticed the blood stains on her suit and nodded. “It’s not mine. We need to go.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “I’ll keep trying him on the radio,” Gellar said as they all chased after Lexi. They reached the edge of the sector they were in and passed through the tall archway leading to Asteroid Falls.

  Lexi shouted out. “Miller! Miller, where are you?”

  Gellar took point, passing her radio to Trent, and leading with her rifle. She scanned left and right as the group passed by the side of a 4D simulator shaped like a broken-down all-terrain bus. Mad Manny’s Thunder Tour.

  The path widened up ahead but was bordered on either side by fake canyon walls. Overhead, a false ceiling gave the illusion of being beneath three blazing suns. The claustrophobic walkway stretched for almost a hundred metres and there were food vendors and gift shops nestled inside rock like caves on either side.

  Lexi shouted again. “Miller!”

  Miller appeared at the opposite end off the canyon, looking back at them. He was so far off that he appeared small.

  Trent tried him on the radio but got no answer. “Why isn’t he answering? Does he even have his radio on him?”

  “He’s turned it off,” Gellar said confidently. “He’s hunting and doesn’t want his radio squawking and giving away his position.”