Mark fired off a shot as an older-looking Rev came toward him, snarling as he approached. He hit him in the center of the chest, knowing full well that wouldn’t do the trick. The man stopped for all of a moment and smirked down at the white blood that soaked the front of his black shirt as the skin just beneath healed before Mark’s eyes. With a step toward him, Mark pulled the trigger, the resounding clicks meaning the clip was empty. The fully automatic rifle was no use at that point. The Revenant came at him, fast and hard, hitting him in the jaw with a closed fist. The blow disoriented him, but he righted himself quickly, only stumbling back a couple of steps as he reached for one of his sidearms.
As soon as Mark reached back, the soldier came at him again, with a kick to the gut this time. Mark curled around the injury but didn’t slow down as he lunged at the bloodsucker. The fight was a flurry of punches and kicks, neither one of them slowing down during the entire exchange. The Rev was fueled with adrenaline and increased dopamine, while Mark only had the adrenaline to keep him going, an unfair advantage as far as he was concerned.
Mark lashed out with a sweep of his foot, landing the Revenant soldier on the ground, his bald head hitting the floor with a cracking sound, but it didn’t stop him. In one swift motion, Mark pulled out his sidearm and aimed right between the Rev’s eyes, turned off the safety, and fired. The bullet made a small entry hole in his forehead, killing him instantly. He lowered his aim and fired again at the heart because you could never be too sure.
Caesar had led the group with Joshua right behind him when they first entered, but the battle scattered them throughout the foyer of the crumbling prison.
***
Joshua had been quickly cornered by two young Revenant soldiers after entering the prison. Just before he had noticed the wires running through the entrance and toward another part of the prison, leading him to believe that was their hub and that it would tell them where Jenny was within the prison walls. Before he could alert Mark and Caesar to the presence of the wires, the two soldiers came upon him, and he hadn’t had a chance to pull a weapon other than the knife inside his boot.
He lashed out with the blade and caught one of the Revs on the cheek, sending a slash across his flesh that oozed white blood. Without stopping, Joshua advanced, taking the other by surprise with the swiftness he had picked up from G.O.D. soldiers during the little bit of training he had gotten at a prior Station before being moved to Station Four. You had to be quick in their world, or you would end up dead.
The soldier jumped back, barely missing the blade altogether. He punched both Revs and took a step back to ready himself for a kick that would knock at least one of them on the ground so he could kill the other. Then he would contend with the other and help Caesar, who dealt with at least three of his own, although he didn’t seem to need the help. There was a gunshot and then another, almost distracting Joshua from the two before him. The soldier he aimed the kick at kicked out first, catching him in the belly. He stumbled back and his back met the wall. He ducked as the other Revenant lunged at him with a closed fist, sweeping his legs beneath their feet. They both fell to the ground.
Joshua straddled one of them and struck down with the blade in his hand, penetrating the skull with a sickening crunch and sinking into something soft underneath. The brain. The Rev stopped moving. Joshua reached to his side, removed a pistol, and aimed it at his remaining adversary. He turned off the safety and fired in quick succession, ending the young Rev’s life with a splatter of brain and bone fragments, and a spray of warm, white blood.
More gunshots echoed off the walls and when Joshua looked up, he heard the thud of the other soldiers as their bodies fell to the ground in front of the Head Hunter. Their eyes met, and Caesar nodded with approval at Mark and him, no words needed.
“Here, these wires. I’m sure they lead to a control room of some sort,” Joshua pointed out, stepping toward the thick blue wires that ran along the battered baseboards.
The others followed Joshua as he trailed the wires and, as he suspected, they led to a room. A hub that ran the operation within the prison, which wasn’t much of one considering what little equipment they saw as they entered.
Three Revenants leapt to their feet as another looked up from his computer screen. Joshua, Mark, and Caesar fired their guns all at once, hitting each of the three who were standing in the head. Each body dropped to the ground with a thud as the young bald Rev at the computer stood with his arms in the air. He knew he was no match for the intruders. From what Joshua could tell, he hadn’t been infected for too long.
“Please, don’t shoot,” he begged with pleading eyes.
Caesar pulled to the front of the group and aimed his pistol at the young man, moving with sure and quick steps.
“Where is she? Where’s the girl?” He shouted the questions with urgency.
Joshua came to his side and also aimed his weapon, followed by Mark.
“I—ugh—I—” the Rev stammered as sweat broke out all over his bald head.
Mark stood next to him and pressed the barrel of his gun against his temple, firing without a word. Splattering across the floor and the desk, the Revenant’s head jerked to the side, and his body twisting before it fell to the cold floor.
Joshua and Caesar looked at him in shock, not expecting him to take control into his hands just yet. Mark had always been quiet and observant, hardly ever taking the reins. Especially in battle. He was always the one to follow orders.
“What the—” Caesar said.
“Trust me, using me is quicker,” Mark stated with a shrug.
He pulled the chair out and sat down, not even taking a moment to wipe the Rev’s blood off the keyboard before beginning to type away. Joshua moved and leaned down to see the screen better, Caesar hanging back behind the chair. Mark had always been a computer genius despite spending so much time with the freak show before the meteorite shower. Blue letters moved over the screen and, as Joshua scanned it, a video popped up playing live video feed from a camera labeled ‘Isolation Room Four.’
“That’s solitary confinement. That’s where she is,” Caesar specified. “Let’s go get my daughter.”
***
Jenkins could hear them coming from inside of the isolation room, rapid fire echoing off the walls and down the hall. It came through the closed metal door so loudly it was almost as if the door wasn’t shut at all.
“Looks like I was wrong after all,” Jenkins muttered as he moved around Jenny and undid her restraints. “Good. I’ve been looking for a good fight.”
He jerked Jenny from the chair. She she yelped in surprise and pain as his large hand encircled her upper arm with an iron grip. Holding her in front of him, her back pressed against his body, the flow of her blood in her veins was nearly irresistible. He could smell the iron in her blood just below her skin. Leaning his head down, he took in a long breath through his nose, savoring the scent of the life that ran through her body.
“Once I kill your father, you’re next. You’ll make a great Revenant whether you want it or not,” Jenkins threatened as he traced a finger over her the pulse point in her throat.
“No,” she denied. “No.”
A loud groan of the large metal door announced the arrival of the Head Hunter. What Jenkins wasn’t expecting when he looked up was that he wasn’t alone. Two young men, the same two from Station Four who had tried to rescue Jenny and stop him from turning their redheaded friend, filed into the room just behind Caesar Meldano He had plans for Meldano—both of them—but only one of them would make it out alive. Well, alive in a difference sense of the word.
Jenkins also didn’t expect the appearance of the Head Hunter. Caesar’s flesh was the same grayish color as his, but a little paler and lined with blue veins just underneath it, as well as red eyes. But he could sense that he was nowhere near the same. The type of infection had nothing to do with the Syc parasite like his did. It was all the effect of the ‘Faith’ serum he had injected himself with after
injecting Jenkins. Jenkins wasn’t prepared for that, which made him an even more precious resource than he had been considered before this very moment that fate brought them together again.
Of course, he also hadn’t expected Caesar to make an appearance at all. He had expected him to believe that this was a trick, but here he was. Living and breathing, coming for the daughter he had believed dead.
“Jenny?” Caesar exclaimed.
Jenkins felt her head jerk to look toward the voice and Jenkins’s lips perked up in a menacing grin.
“Dad? Please help me!” she cried out.
All Jenkins did was laugh as he watched Caesar’s eyes widen in fear for his long-lost daughter.
“Oh . . . how touching,” Jenkins chortled.
“Let her go, Jenkins. This has nothing to do with her. This is between you and me,” Meldano shouted with his gun aimed directly at Jenkins’s forehead.
“You couldn’t be more wrong, Meldano. See, this may have started out with you and me, but it came to involve her once I found out she was still alive. And I know that to save her, you will do whatever I demand,” Colonel Jenkins explained to them.
The boys behind him remained silent, staying out of something that truly had nothing to do with either one of them. They had come along not only to save the girl in Jenkins’ arms but to avenge the one he had turned. He could smell the bitter tang of revenge on the air coming out of their pores in rivers.
After a few heartbeats of hesitation, Caesar lowered his weapon with a look of defeat and let out a loud and profound breath.
“What do you want, Jenkins?” he asked.
“Caesar, you can’t be serious!” One of the two boys, the one with the dark hair, took a step forward and touched Meldano’s shoulder.
He jerked away from him and never took his eyes off Jenkins.
Holding his hand up in the air he continued, “I’ll do whatever you want. Just, please, don’t hurt my daughter anymore.”
“I have a proposition for you. One life for another. You come with me for my own experimentation, just like you did with me.”
“And?” Caesar pushed.
“And I let Jenny go with your friends.”
“If he says no?” the other boy behind him probed.
“I turn her, and she joins the ranks of the Revs, joining my side of the war. And you may want to make a decision quickly. Your entrance triggered a silent alarm and my soldiers will be here any minute.”
“Okay, I’ll go with you,” Caesar reacted without reluctance. “Let her go.”
Little did they know that Jenkins had no interest in doing so. She was a bargaining chip to get him to come with them, but he would be turning her regardless, and there was nothing the three in front of them could do about it. Not even the Head Hunter who was known for killing his kind as well as any other type of infected because, in fact, Caesar Meldano would be bled dry as soon as they exited the prison.
Jenkins loosened his grip on the girl, but not by much. Just enough to let her move closer to her father’s small group as Caesar came closer to him. It would be a nice little trade that wouldn’t work out in their favor. Jenkins could snap the necks of the other two men, turn Jenny, and take Caesar down with one blow. Just enough to knock him unconscious so they could take every bit of the life force that ran through his veins to help their people. Just as Caesar and Jenny’s fingers barely touched, Jenkins jerked her back toward him and opened his mouth, ready to bite her and infect her.
There was a loud bang and a hot burning sensation started in his shoulder and moved outward, causing him to lose his grip on the girl. Caesar jerked her away and pushed her toward the two behind him, moving in on him quickly. Jenkins glanced down, white blood oozing from what he could now see was a bullet wound. He crouched slightly and hissed. The pain was already beginning to fade as the wound started to heal.
Caesar fired off another shot, but Jenkins dodged it. He lashed out, knocking the gun out of Caesar’s grip. It clattered across the floor and stopped all the way across the room, completely out of his reach. Caesar punched him, his fist gliding across his temple without much of an impact. His foot caught Jenkins in the knee. Jenkins cried out when there was a loud crack. Panic clouded Caesar’s veins when Jenkins straightened his leg out and it snapped back into place.
Jenkins chuckled and lunged at the Head Hunter, blocking Caesar’s advances as Caesar blocked his own. He gripped Caesar’s throat and squeezed, pushing him up against the wall, almost plowing into the others as they barely had time to back away. Caesar’s hand closed around Jenkins’s wrist and, as he tightened his grip, he felt the bones in his wrist begin to fracture. Caesar’s heartbeat began to pick up as it struggled to send oxygen to his brain. Regardless, he held on.
Caesar lifted his other arm and brought it down with so much force it caused Jenkins to let go, pain radiating from the point of impact on his forearm all the way up to his elbow and down toward his wrist and hand. A knee came up and caught him in his groin.
He stumbled back a few steps from Caesar, nearly dropping to the ground as he felt his stomach lurch with nausea. Closing the distance between them, Caesar wound up an uppercut and caught Jenkins just under the chin, sending him to the ground with a jolt of electric, white-hot agony moving from that point of impact and to his brain as it jostled inside of his skull. Caesar stepped in front of him, the black military issued boots the only thing coming into view besides the wet floor and the others watching with horror.
“I’m not as easy to take down anymore, Jenkins,” Caesar said as he bent down and looked Jenkins in the eye. “I’m made of the same stuff as you, and I am much stronger.”
Jenkins felt his strength returning as he healed from the inside out. At this point, he was biding his time until the extraction team arrived. Then Caesar’s blood was the only thing standing between his race, a cure, and ultimate power. Enough to take down the Government of Defense, if not more. Maybe even take over the world.
A loud explosion rocked the prison, taking out the wall of the isolation room they were in. Caesar flew backward as the others ducked for cover behind the threshold. Then everything went completely dark, and he felt nothing.
Chapter 23
Abandoned Memphis State Penitentiary
July 2027
Isolation Chamber 4
Caesar coughed as he heard large vehicles drive away, certain that they were leaving them for dead. His entire body ached, but he would live. He was the most worried about his daughter who didn’t have his same abilities, making her as well as her friends vulnerable to any damage the explosion and debris could have caused.
He sat up and wiped brick dust from his eyes, looking around in the dim light given off by the few remaining lights still somehow running.
“Jenny?” he yelled into the nothingness. He turned and rose onto his knees.
“Dad?” Jenny cried out from behind the threshold of the room.
She came around the door jamb, and he was shocked at what he saw. Not only was she alive and they were telling the truth, but she was bleeding. She endured some torture while she was in their hands and he had noticed the blood before when Jenkins held her to him, threatening her life if he didn’t comply. Her friends joined her, only a few small scratches on them. They coughed from the dust in the room kicked up by the bomb.
He jerked to his feet and ran toward her, stumbling over random bricks and debris in his path. As soon as he was in front of her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace, holding her as her body began to shake with fading adrenaline, terror, and sobs. He smoothed down her hair, making hushing noises, doing his best to comfort her, but not knowing how after so long being solitary. No longer belonging to the human race because he was no longer human, but that was going to change.
He would change for his daughter. His sweet Jenny who had thought she was an orphan for seven years. She wasn’t alone anymore, and he would make certain she had a world she could live in till a
ripe old age, surrounded by loved ones because he had made it possible for her to live a life that he and her mother had wanted for her so long ago. He didn’t care what it took.
***
Great Smoky Mountains
July 2027
Area 51 – Underground Bunker
The ride to the underground bunker was silent, but it wasn’t awkward. Caesar was filled with so much joy he didn’t have words for it. Now, as he led Jenny to her private quarters within the apartment in the bunker, he couldn’t stop turning to stare at her. He was almost convinced this was a dream. She couldn’t possibly be there with him after seven years of believing she was in Heaven with her dearly departed mother.
But here she was. Granted, blood covered her arms and face and she had a slight limp, but she seemed to be faring well enough considering the circumstances. Jenny walked beside him with his assistance, as if they had never spent a single second apart in a world full of monsters. Her forehead had stopped bleeding, but would need stitches. The other wounds all over her olive skin that he could see were only superficial.
They walked through the door and into the room where she would be staying. He wasn’t about to let her out of his sight ever again. A solid wood door reinforced with steel bars on the inside and massive locks came into view and, as they approached, he reached out to take the silver door knob in his sweating palm.
“This will be your room. Try to get some rest. We have a lot of planning to do.”
He opened the door, and she took a step into the room. The walls were covered in a dark, mossy green that was supposed to be calming. The queen-sized bed was adorned with cream colored bed linens, the rest of the modern furniture minimal at best, including a small desk with an advanced computer system as well as a bookshelf lined with science books of every kind. In the event of a nuclear fallout, this was to be her room once Area 51 collected them, but there was never a chance.
Zombified (Book 1): The Head Hunter Page 32
