by Scott Shoyer
“I sure hope you have a plan, old man!” Brian yelled from the seats. “These things are all over the bus and there’s more coming!”
Stewart and Brian had forged a tight bond since Murphy had picked Stewart up in Virginia. Brian looked to Stewart as a father figure and was amazed that Stewart was so knowledgeable about so many different topics. Whenever they got the chance and it was safe, Murphy would always stop at a library or a bookstore and let Stewart and the others raid the shelves. Reading was one of the things that kept everyone from tearing each other apart.
“You know me, buddy!” Stewart yelled back. “I’ve always got something up my sleeve.”
In the distance, Stewart saw the others as they raced toward the bus, only to stop when they saw it was surrounded by zombies.
“Come on, everyone,” Stewart muttered to himself. “Use the trees… get in the goddamn trees.”
*****
Murphy and Frye heard the bus engine roar to life and knew the others were making a move. It was time to make their way to the bus, but they also knew there was at least one zombie among the trees.
“Do you think Jackson went back to the group?” Murphy whispered to Frye.
“Nope,” was all Frye said. Murphy didn’t think Jackson had made it back either. “Come on, Murphy. Let’s head back this way,” Frye continued.
The two men slowly walked through the trees and bushes, being careful not to step on any dried twigs or leaves. They heard a loud noise and realized that whoever was behind the wheel of the bus was honking the horn.
“Sounds like they’re trying to attract the zombies,” Frye said.
As they made their way through the trees, they saw what looked like a broomstick broken in half. Frye and Murphy looked at each other silently and moved on. When they walked through two trees, Frye stepped in something wet that made a squishing sound and the men stopped.
“Yeah, I heard that,” Frye whispered as Murphy turned his head. The men looked on the ground and saw what was left of Jackson.
“Holy shit,” Murphy whispered.
“He’s all over my boot,” Frye said as he wiped off his boot in the grass. “Look at him, Murphy,” Frye said as a concerned look came across his face. “Jackson wasn’t eaten… he was torn apart.”
“What does it matter?” Murphy asked as he covered his nose.
“It matters because if these bastards aren’t hunting us for food, then they’re just killing us either for fun or to eliminate us.”
Murphy’s silence let Frye know he understood the implications.
Just as the men started walking, Murphy heard something rustle in the trees above them and looked up. He hoped to see a squirrel or a bird, but was met instead by the yellow eyes of a zombie. The thing looked down at Murphy for a second and then jumped out the tree.
Frye instinctively rolled out of the way and went for the gun on his holster. Murphy took a few steps back, but was too slow to get completely out the way. Murphy raised his barbed wire stick and swung. He caught the creature in the shoulder and the barbed wire tore through the zombie’s shirt and bit into its flesh.
Murphy followed through with his swing and dragged the zombie to the ground. He pulled the stick away from the creature’s shoulder and saw it tear away flesh and muscle. Murphy quickly brought the stick down onto the zombie’s face and heard the cartilage in its nose break. Murphy saw the barbed wire as it sunk into the creature’s eyeball and he pulled the stick away violently.
The eyeball was torn from the creature’s socket and dangled by the optic nerve. Frye jumped in and stomped the creature’s head until the skull cracked.
“Nice reflexes,” Frye said as he turned to Murphy.
“I used to play a lot of stick ball in the streets of South Philly,” Murphy said as he caught his breath. “Think that was the only one around here?”
“I don’t,” said Frye, “and I don’t intend on sticking around to find out. Let’s get the fuck out of these trees. You good to run?”
“Absolutely,” Murphy said.
Frye held the Beretta in his hand and Murphy had a two-hand grip on his weapon as they ran off through the woods in the direction of the bus.
7
Underneath Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
Fi slept in the corner of the lab. For the last few days, she’d isolated herself from the other yellow-eyed creatures, but had kept herself relatively close to the Discovery—enough to feel its warmth.
Fi knew that Butsko was concerned about her. He wasn’t worried about her health, but was more worried that she wouldn’t be able to execute her purpose. Every yellow-eyed creature had a purpose, unlike the first generation of infected people. Those lower creatures lived only to infect others and feed. But there was a reason the bio-nano virus mutated. Regardless of their intent, they all worked toward the same goal:
To conquer the Earth and eliminate the planet’s dominant species.
Most of the yellow-eyed creatures were the soldiers who would be on the front lines of the upcoming war, but there was a special role that both Fi and Butsko would play. Fi knew this in her bones, but currently felt as though she was a hindrance to the upcoming battle.
Over the last few days, Fi had grown tired and would sleep for hours at a time, only to wake up just as sleepy as when she lay down. Two days ago, she’d had a voracious appetite she hadn’t experienced since her initial transformation. She’d slaughtered and ate three other yellow-eyed creatures to satisfy her hunger.
With a full stomach, she’d grown even more listless. Butsko had checked on her a few times, but he’d sensed something dangerous about her and had stopped his routine visits.
Fi had made what looked like a nest out of old lab coats and rags in the corner of the lab. The nest was against the wall, adjacent to the other lab that Butsko and many of the other yellow-eyed creatures were in. She wanted to be away from the others, but she always wanted to be close to The Discovery and feel its warmth.
She needed to feel its warmth.
Fi’s eyes bolted open. A layer of sweat covered her body and she felt as though she was burning up. She tried to stand, but her body wouldn’t listen. Her knees and ankles and other joints felt liquefied and her bones didn’t feel too solid either. She felt her body temperature rise and wouldn’t have been shocked if the rags she slept on caught fire.
She dragged her forearm across her forehead to wipe the sweat away and noticed how thick her sweat was. She knew something was wrong, but the bio-nano virus that coursed through her body kept her calm. Fi looked at the sweat. It was clear and had the consistency of honey. She watched the sweat as it oozed out all over her body, but didn’t drip. No matter how much sweat came from her pores and built up on her body, not one drop fell from her skin.
Fi fell back into the nest she’d made for herself. Her body temperature kept rising and the thick sweat continued to cover her entire body. The strange liquid dripped down over her eyes and sealed them shut. She felt the liquid continue to drip over her mouth and she closed her lips to avoid getting any between her lips. The liquid dripped down her chin and in its wake, sealed her mouth shut.
She remained calm even as the fire inside her body intensified. Her skin felt like it was melting and her bones felt like Play-Dough that was being reshaped into something new. The last thing Fi felt before her brain switched off was a renewed sense of purpose. She was convinced that whatever was happening to her was part of something bigger.
The liquid was so thick around her that no details of her body could be seen. Images flashed through her head as she felt consciousness slip away. She caught glimpses of what the Earth would look like after the battle and what her ultimate purpose was.
The Convergence was coming, and before Fi slipped into unconsciousness, she managed to smile through the thick liquid that covered her face and body.
Chapter Four
1
Sub-Level Facility, Schoepke Springs
Spicewood, Texas
Wilder was about to outline his plan for retrieving the alien object on the level above them when they all saw the images on the monitors flicker and fade away. One by one, each monitor went black.
“Could you be a little more specific, Stefan?” Josef asked calmly.
“There’s either a problem with the monitors or with the cameras,” Stefan reported as he fiddled with the monitor’s wires. “We lost all images.”
“There’s nothing wrong with them!” Stacey called out from behind the wall of monitors. “All the cables are hooked up and I’m getting strong voltage readouts from the outlets.”
“Then what the hell’s happening?” Josef asked.
Wilder walked over to the monitors and looked at the last few camera feeds that still worked. The camera was fixed on the room that contained the hatch to get to the upper level. Wilder took in every detail of the room.
“Look!” Wilder shouted out as he pointed to the monitor, but no one around him was fast enough. Before anyone saw what Wilder pointed at, the monitor went dead.
“What did you see, Wilder?” Cheryl asked as she walked over and stood next to him.
“The creatures were doing something odd,” Wilder said. “I know that’s vague, but they were breaking their routine.”
Everyone waited, as if wanting Wilder to elaborate.
“We’ve been down here for what, Cheryl? Six, seven months?” Wilder asked. “Part of my morning ritual was to check out this monitor after I do some exercises and get some coffee. Whenever I walked past the monitors, I always looked to see what they’re up to. For the last six months, those bastards have done nothing but scratch and pound their fists against the steel door.”
“Okay,” Rickard said. “So what?”
“So what?” Wilder mimicked Rickard. “I haven’t seen a single one of those fuckers so much as sit down in the last six months.”
“Yeah, and?” Rickard said impatiently.
“Holy shit, Rickard,” Wilder said as he turned to face the man. “How the hell have you survived all this time being so unobservant?” Then Wilder turned to the others. “Right before the monitor died, all the creatures in that room started sitting down. Some even laid down.”
Wilder looked around and grew frustrated when no one was appeared to find this problematic.
“I think you’ve all been down here too long,” Wilder said. “They changed their routine. They did something different today. Why? Why today? Why today seconds before all the monitors went offline?”
“Shit,” Steele said. “You think they found a way in and are trying to distract us?”
“Maybe,” Wilder responded, “but I think there’s something else going on.” The others looked at Wilder as he collected his thoughts. Part of Wilder’s success at surviving all this time had been due to his almost-supernatural ability to notice the tiniest details. His situational awareness was second to no ones. He could notice the one penny that was tails-side up in a room full of heads-side up pennies.
Wilder smacked his hands together. “Their skin,” he said to no one in particular. “There was something on their skin.”
“What are you talking about?” Howard asked.
“No, he’s right,” Jennie said. “I saw it too. Right before the monitor went out, the creatures were all laying on the ground and there was something wet and shiny on their skin.”
“So maybe they broke a pipe or something,” Rickard said.
“Does an exposed pipe run through that room?” Wilder asked.
“No,” Josef said.
“Well, then,” Wilder said as he turned to Rickard, “I guess it wasn’t water on them.”
Rickard turned and walked away from the monitors.
“From the glimpse I got, it definitely wasn’t water,” Jennie said. “It kind of looked like corn syrup.”
“It can’t be a coincidence that the monitors start going down right at the exact moment something starts happening to the creatures,” Wilder said.
“Agreed,” said Josef. “What do you think is going on?”
“I’m not sure,” Wilder said, “but I sure hope they aren’t mutating again.”
2
Twenty Miles Outside Huntsville, Texas
Sam Houston Trailer Park
Stewart sat behind the wheel of the tour bus, revved the engine, and even honked the horn a few times.
“Are you trying to get us killed!” Emily yelled from the back of the bus.
“I gotta let the others know we’re on the bus and we’re safe in here,” Stewart responded.
“I see someone! Over there!” Brian yelled as he pointed into the darkness. They simultaneously heard a gunshot and saw the flash from the barrel as two men fought their way toward the bus.
“I think it’s Greg and Noonan,” Kimberly said.
Stewart gently pressed down on the gas pedal and the bus lurched forward. They felt the massive tires roll over a few zombies as the bus yielded to neither flesh nor bone.
Greg and Noonan made their way toward the bus from the right side. Noonan beat down the zombies with a police baton while Greg used his pistol to keep the creatures away from them. Noonan used his whole body to put down any of the yellow-eyed creatures around him. He smashed them in the face with the baton to shatter their teeth and would then kick them in the knees to disable them.
If Greg shot one in the head and it fell, Noonan was right on top of it and stomping its head until there was nothing left to reanimate. Stewart and the others watched as Greg holstered his pistol and grabbed his other baton. The two men stood back-to-back and worked as one to kill anything that came around them.
But they were only two men. The creatures’ numbers swelled around them. Those bastards seemed to understand that Greg was out of ammo and was less of a threat with only his hands. More of the creatures surrounded the men. Greg and Noonan kicked and hit the zombies and kept them at arm’s length as long as they could, but it appeared they were in an impossible situation. Surrounded by eleven of the creatures, it was likely that they’d never see the inside of the bus.
Off in the darkness came the flash from a gun and as two of the creatures around Greg and Noonan dropped. Noonan stomped on their heads as a few of the zombies ran off toward the gun shots.
From behind the trees, Frye and Murphy ran like bats out of hell toward Greg and Noonan. Frye dropped the zombies with his pistol and Murphy swung his barbed wire stick and carved a path toward the two trapped men.
Frye and Murphy’s surprise attack thinned out the zombie’s numbers and gave Greg and Noonan the edge they needed to escape. Noonan kicked a nearby zombie on the side of its kneecap and dropped it to the ground. He then kicked the creature in the ribs and finished it off as he brought the baton down on the back of the zombie’s upper neck, snapping its spinal cord. The creature fell to the ground and was motionless.
For now.
“Let’s go!” yelled Frye. “We gotta get to the bus!”
Stewart continued to slowly roll the bus forward to make their journey shorter. Just as the bus rolled over another zombie, Brian gasped in horror.
“Fuck!” Brian shouted. “Look to the left… there’s a horde of them coming!”
Stewart stopped the bus and looked out the left window. He felt the blood drain from his face as he watched a pack of at least twenty yellow-eyed zombies run toward them.
Stewart set the bus’s emergency brake and opened a window on the right side of the bus.
“Come on, you guys!” Stewart shouted. “You need to get on this bus now! There’s more coming!”
Stewart ran back to the driver’s seat and through the bus into gear and moved closer to the four men. As the bus moved, Frye saw the pack of zombies as they approached the bus. He knew if they weren’t on the bus in the next few moments that they never would be.
Murphy stood up after he slammed the barbed wire i
n the face of a nearby creature as the other zombies got closer.
The bus shook as Stewart slammed on the brakes. The bus was ten feet from the four men who fought for their lives.
After he stomped on a zombie’s head, Greg slammed his baton into another zombie’s throat and ran to the bus. Murphy buried the barbed wire stick into the head of the creature nearest him and pulled the stick across its face. Murphy watched as the barbed wire tore out the creature’s left yellow eye and most of its nose. He then kicked it in the stomach and quickly smashed the zombie in the back of the head.
Murphy grabbed for his weapon, but it was lodged in the creature’s skull. It wasn’t budging.
“Leave it!” Frye shouted.
Murphy looked up as Frye put down two more creatures. Frye had grabbed a thick branch that had fallen from a tree and was beating the creatures with it.
Murphy ran to the bus, Frye behind him. When the doors were about halfway open, they began to close again. A yellow-eyed creature ran past Frye toward the bus. Just as the creature was about to get Murphy, Frye grabbed the zombie on the shoulder and spun it around. The creature stared down the barrel of Frye’s Beretta and even hesitated as if it knew what was going to happen next.
Murphy ran the rest of the way to the bus, followed by Greg and Noonan. The three men got on the bus and waited for Frye to pull the trigger.
Frye smiled at the yellow-eyed creature and squeezed the pistol’s trigger.
Nothing happened.
The hammer had landed on an empty chamber.
The zombie reacted with lightning reflexes, grabbed Frye, and pushed him against the bus’s doors. It moved toward the defenseless man and ripped out his throat. Blood sprayed across the doors of the bus and screams filled the night sky. The people on the bus watched helplessly as the zombie ripped Frye apart.
“Get this thing moving!” Greg shouted.
Stewart was frozen on the sight of Frye being torn apart, but was quickly brought back to reality as the twenty-some zombies that approached from the left side slammed against the bus.
