Z1N1: The Zombie Pandemic: 2012 Was Just the Beginning

by Mitchell Layne Cook

  The soldier standing closest to the iron cage unlocked two thick professional-grade locks and untwined the chain. The two armed gunmen walked their inebriated captives into the cage. The hobos looked around the cage as if they were lost in a foggy haze. They offered little to no resistance against their captors. Two of the bums sat down in the center of the cage while the third walked around the perimeter calling out a name, but neither Craig nor Theo could hear what or who the bum was asking for. The hobos were clearly under the influence of heavy narcotics or other mind-altering drugs.

  “What are they doing down there?” Craig asked.

  “I have no idea.”

  A loud, angry growl erupted from a different room than where the hobos originally entered from. The two IPPC men stood up from behind their desks and joined the third member of their team that was standing near a large collection of metal file cabinets; they walked around to the other side of the cabinets just out of view of Craig and Theo. More angry screams and growls from the second room echoed around the basement. Within moments, all three IPPC officials emerged in their bright yellow hazmat suits…each man carried a large chain with a giant question mark-shaped hook on the end. They checked each other’s suits one final time to ensure complete closures of all the seals and gaskets. The IPPC team cautiously walked to the room where the growls emanated from.

  Craig and Theo could not see the scientists anymore. The two men also noticed that the soldiers had quickly moved a good distance away from the cage in preparation for whatever was coming out of the second room. The three IPPC members backed out of that room, struggling to pull the large man out…Theo and Craig knew it was the same man that was yanked out of the back of the truck as the night started.

  Two of the three soldiers rejoined the IPPC team. Each soldier also carried a chain. They were no longer in their military fatigues; they now wore a US military version of the same hazmat suits worn by the IPPC. The chained man’s hands were somehow tied in place behind his back. The captive man sported a thick leather collar around his neck; five shiny metal o-rings were embedded in the collar. The IPPC members had attached their chains to three of the five o-rings. The two soldiers carefully put their chain hooks into the final two spots and helped drag the beastly man the rest of the way to the cage door.

  “Cut his hands loose,” one of the IPPC members said. The third soldier, the one originally guarding the locked door appeared; he also wore a hazmat suit. In his hands were large hedge clippers. He positioned himself behind the captive man and with a bit of effort cut through the tough leather bindings.

  Craig and Theo watched in stunned silence and the large man swung his arms wildly at his captors. With five men controlling his neck and head, the prisoner was unable to reach any of his intended targets. Craig glanced into the center of the cage; all three hobos looked out the cage door but their stoic faces showed no fear, no recognition of the events playing out before them.

  The chained man reached up clasping both of his powerful hands around the leather collar. As he focused his attention on freeing himself, his captors took advantage of the opportunity and slung him into the cage using the chains like a giant slingshot. The man with the hedge clippers quickly moved into position and slammed the iron door shut. He began wrapping the chains around the door as the beastly man finally snatched the collar from around his neck.

  The overhead light shined down on the once chained man now standing in the cage with the street people; Craig gasped as he saw the deformed man clearly for the first time. His face was pale gray with oddly sagging skin around the ears and chin, the left side of his head seeped with a thick, greenish puss from a devastating head wound and the femur of his right leg protruded violently through his pants – the chalky white color stood out in amazing contrast to the otherwise dingy garb of the man. Theo didn’t notice the life-threatening wounds that Craig had focused on; the younger man could not look away from the large man’s soulless bloody eyes.

  The misshapen man growled angrily beating his newly freed hands against his head. He shuffled his feet as if he was a bull ready to charge. The three hobos simultaneously snapped out of their drug-induced funk. They began to scream and cry – begging to be released from the cage. They all ran to the door, pushing and pulling but the thick metal door stood firm. One hobo climbed on top of the other two men and jumped up to grab the edge of the cage. He began to pull himself over the top, but the original gatekeeper hurried to the edge of the cage and stabbed the bum in the abdomen with the hedge clippers. The obese hobo grabbed his side and fell backwards on top of the other two street people. The sick man in the center of the cage erupted into a fit of blind rage – hurling himself towards the pile of flesh at the base of the door.

  All three of the hobos still seemed to have an intact sense of self-preservation no matter how much drugs pumped through their system. As the rage-filled man descended upon them, they split up and ran in three different directions around the enclosed cage. The speed of the attacker seemed rather agile compared to the half-drugged street people, but in reality, his movements were only slightly faster. He cornered the fattest of the three hobos next to the door, the one that had just been stabbed. The hobo turned and raised his arms to protect his face, but his efforts were futile. The crazed man rained blows down upon the injured hobo like a professional fighter would do to a third grader. Each vicious blow to the hobo’s head and torso sounded like a wooden baseball bat being slammed against a large, ripe watermelon.

  The sick man reared back his scythe-like right arm and struck deep into the bum’s chest. The bum’s whimpering turned into loud, blood curdling screams of terror. The attacker thrust his balled up left hand deep into the mouth of the bum, silencing his victim’s screams forever. The force of the last blow broke the bum’s jaw on impact, his head bounced off the iron cage splitting open the back of his head exposing his brain, for the first and last time, to the outside air. The fat bum slumped to the ground as his attacker knelt down gnawing a large pink chunk of flesh from the dead bum’s face. The two other hobos ran to the opposite end of the cage and tried to climb up the walls, but it was no use. Their cries of terror reverberated around the basement.

  Theo and Craig glanced at each other, unwilling to accept what they had just witnessed. It made no sense. Both men were unable to speak; the look of fear and uncertainty in each other’s eyes told the same story – it was time to get the hell out of Dodge. As they backed away from the edge of the balcony, their attention once again was directed towards the center of the cage where the screams from moments ago had abruptly ceased.

  As Craig and Theo inched back to the edge of the balcony, the two men looked down into the cage once again. In the brief time they had backed away from their vantage point, the crazed attacker had downed the other two bums like a lion would do to an injured gazelle in the open plains of Africa. However, there was no grace or balance in the devastation below. The lion would never kill for sport – only for food, unlike the predator in the cage. This “man” killed because he could. This man-creature was an abomination – Craig and Theo now clearly recognized this fact. What transpired below was unnatural and horrifyingly disturbing. What they had once considered to be the “sick man” had quickly turned into a mindless beast…

  As the creature feasted on human flesh, two of the three IPPC officials sat behind their small desks and continued to type into their laptops; they callously recorded the results like any good scientist should do. The three soldiers bantered back and forth seemingly disinterested in the scene that had just played out in the cage behind them. Obviously they were accustomed to seeing the results. This was not the first test they had performed in the basement of Building-2.

  “What the hell?” The third member of the IPPC team that was not recording results turned his attention from the cage and pointed directly to the balcony where Craig and Theo hid. “It looks like we got ourselves some trespassers!”

  Two of the soldiers quickly took aim at the
balcony area and opened fire with their machine guns. Bullets whizzed and bounced all around Craig and Theo but neither of them was hit. They spun around on their stomachs and crawled away from the edge. As they reached the end of the short hallway, they stood up, turned left and ran down the remainder of the hallway leading to the staircase going up to the first floor. They could hear shouting behind them but neither man looked back. They ascended the staircase two and three stairs at a time until they emerged into the first floor of the building. Less than thirty feet separated them from the garage door and the outside world. No one was guarding the entrance that they had used earlier to enter the building. Theo and Craig could hear at least three men giving chase behind them; they made a dash for the garage door and slid through the slim opening like they were major league baseball players sliding into second base. High powered rounds punctured the metal door above their heads as the two men rolled into the fresh nighttime air.

  “I’m sorry, Craig.”

  “We don’t have time for this. Get to the car. We’ve got to get out of here!”

  The garage door began to open behind them. Both men stood up slightly, in a hunched position and ran towards the stone sign. Yelling from behind the two men was punctuated with more gunfire and the rumbling of a large engine starting up. Theo and Craig dove behind the sign and quickly looked back. Two soldiers and one IPPC member had commandeered a small pickup truck that sat on the west side of Building-2. The headlights flipped on, cutting through the darkness, shinning directly on the opposite side of the company sign from the two men.

  Craig and Theo sprinted across the open field between the two businesses. The truck behind them sped to life squealing its tires as its driver pushed the vehicle too hard. The small truck fishtailed clipping the fountain with its back wheels and began to zigzag between Building-3 and Building-4. The driver tried to regain control but the truck hit the wet grass leading to the company sign and the truck smashed sideways into the sign. The soldier in the back was flung through the air, over the edge of the truck bed, headfirst into the still erect base of the sign, killing him on impact.

  Craig and Theo entered the parking deck and ran up the incline to the second floor where their car was positioned stealthily behind the stone support pillar. Craig held out his hand and Theo, without question, handed over the keys. Both men swung open the doors plopping heavily onto their respective seats. Craig started the car and pulled out of the parking spot. As he backed out he clipped the column but it only did minor damage to the passenger side brake light.

  The small car hurtled down the incline to the opening of the parking deck. Bullets crashed through the windshield narrowly missing both men. Craig stomped on the accelerator and cut the wheel sharply to avoid hitting the soldier in front of him. More bullets sprayed through the car destroying the back and passenger side windows. Seat cushioning exploded from the rear of the car, falling throughout the interior like confetti at a birthday party.

  Craig raced out into the empty road running parallel to the secondary production facility. He constantly checked the review mirror for signs of anyone following them as he headed back to the Fountain Crest apartment complex. He punished the car’s small four cylinder engine by pushing it to its max output, but the small foreign car held up. Craig recklessly drove through the empty streets and pulled the car up on the grass area outside of building eighteen leaving the engine running. He jumped out of the car and ran directly to his apartment. The door was locked and he wasted no time with keys; he stepped back and kicked open the fragile door.

  “Mandy! Mandy! Where are you?”

  There was no answer. Craig hastily checked each and every room but there was no sign of his wife. Theo had gotten out of the car and was standing idly in the breezeway looking into Craig’s apartment. Craig came back to the door, stepped outside and grabbed Theo by the shoulders.

  “Where is she?!”

  As Craig shook Theo, the door to Julie’s apartment opened up. Both Julie and Mandy stood looking out into the breezeway shocked by all the noise Craig was making this early in the morning.

  “What’s going on, Craig?” Julie asked.

  Mandy stepped around Julie and rushed over to her husband. He grabbed her in a mighty bear hug sweeping her off of her feet momentarily. Julie and Alexander came out of the apartment and moved closer to Craig. Everyone stared at Craig waiting for an explanation.

  “We have to get out of here. Grab some clothes and that’s it…that’s all the time we have. We’ve got to get out of here!”

  “I don’t understand,” Mandy began but Craig cut her off.

  “Go put on some shoes and clothes NOW! We’re running out of time.”

  Gunfire erupted from behind the north side of building eighteen. Craig reacted flinging his body on top of his wife knocking her out of the way. A hail of bullets and tracer rounds lit up the small apartment complex. A lone gunman had driven the mangled pickup truck from the production facility after them and now he exacted his judgment on the small group of people standing in the breezeway.

  Theo instinctively rolled out of the way of the gunfire. He reached into his backpack and pulled out the tire iron. As the gunmen focused on spraying more rounds into the breezeway, Theo got to his feet and charged the man’s blindside. The young man wailed on the gunmen repeatedly bashing the thick piece of iron against the man’s arms until the soldier dropped the gun. The high-powered machine gun dropped harmlessly to the ground, but Theo did not stop his violent attack. He raised the tire iron above his head continuing to club the man like a baby seal about the head and neck. The gunman’s body twitched sporadically on the ground and then stopped moving. Thick, dark blood dripped off the end of the L-shaped piece of metal; Theo finally stopped swinging the weapon when his arm went numb.

  Craig lay completely still on top of his wife until the gunfire stopped. He gently grabbed her face between his shaking hands; his face was mere inches from hers. “Are you OK?” She nodded her head slowly. Craig pushed himself up to a kneeling position and looked back towards the gunman. He saw Theo, with his head bowed, standing above the dead soldier.

  Craig stood up and rushed over to Julie’s side. She was lying in a small pool of blood face down on the cold concrete of the breezeway. Craig dropped to his knees and gently rolled her over and held her firmly in his arms.

  “Where is Alex?” she asked.

  Craig looked over to the doorway leading into apartment #1701. Alexander’s body was doubled over, slumped inside the doorframe; Alexander was dead. Craig turned his attention back to Julie. He needed to stay calm – years of training came rushing back to him. How badly was Julie hurt?

  “He’s not in any danger anymore.”

  “I’m so cold, Craig. I don’t understand.”

  “We’ve got to get you to a hospital,” Craig said as he slid his hands between Julie and the cold pavement; he struggled to lift her shivering body. Her entire backside was sticky and wet, covered in blood from multiple gunshot wounds. Her warm blood soaked through his clothing; he felt her life draining quickly from her body. Craig knew it was too late to save her. He laid her back down as he comforted his dearest friend, holding her in his arms resting his forehead gently on hers. Her fearful eyes darted around momentarily and then focused on Craig’s eyes. Julie smiled slightly taking her last breath and dying in his arms. Mandy walked over and placed her hands on her husband’s shoulders. Craig pressed his lips against Julie’s forehead and kissed her goodbye.

  “Let’s go, Craig – the rest of those men won’t be far behind,” Theo said as he dropped the tire iron to the ground.

  Craig lovingly lowered Julie’s head to the ground and closed her eyes with his fingertips. He kissed her once again and stood up. In a fit of anger, he rushed at Theo and slugged the younger man in the jaw. Theo collapsed to the ground and Craig mounted him and began punching the man in the chest and face. Mandy rushed over screaming at the top of her lungs for Craig to stop. Theo tried to cover up but C
raig hit him two more times before stopping and rolling off to the side of his human punching bag. Craig sat cross-legged in the wet grass and glanced over at Theo.

  “You fucking killed them, Theo. You’ve probably killed us all.” Craig stood up and looked into Mandy’s eyes. “Get some clothes and shoes, we’ve got to go. I’ll explain what I can when we get on the road.” Craig grimaced painfully as he saw Julie lying exposed in the night air on the cold concrete. “Mandy, go get as many supplies from our apartment as you can – Theo and I have some things to finish out here. Meet us at Julie’s SUV when you are finished.”

  Craig jogged over to the breezeway and delicately moved Julie’s body into her apartment laying her gently on the sofa. Theo moved Alexander inside the apartment placing the dead man’s body on the floor within arm’s reach of his wife. Both bodies were covered with blankets from the bedroom. Craig stood above Julie’s lifeless body, the smell of her perfume wafted gently into his nose; tears began to stream down his face.

  Theo respectfully rummaged through the apartment and gathered light supplies that he felt would come in handy. He knew that he was now a fugitive. With no idea of how long he would be on the run nor where he might end up - he gathered what he could carry stuffing his backpack full of snack food and bottled water. He quickly swept through the bathroom area and emptied the medicine cabinet into a duffle bag that he had taken from Alexander’s side of the room. The young man piled his items next to the door and looked towards Craig for instructions.

  “Take the supplies to the gold SUV outside,” Craig said as he tossed a set of keys that he had taken from Julie’s purse to Theo.