The Rotting Souls Series (Book 3): Charon's Debt

by Ray, Timothy A.

  “Huh?” Ben responded, finally looking up.

  “Tell me that’s not our compound,” he ordered, suddenly trying to figure out just how long it would take him to get over there after grabbing his weapons. The lights were growing in the small window and he knew it would only be moments before the aircraft landed. The young man was clicking away on his mouse and the feed became the active window. The words Icecrown: Compound One were listed across the top. “Get Arkansas on the line,” he commanded, but it was unneeded as suddenly the young Native American’s face came into view on an open call channel.

  He was calling them.

  “Are you seeing this?” the young man inquired over the feed.

  He stepped into the view of the webcam, his hands on Ben’s shoulders and nodding to the younger man looking at them anxiously over the line. “You need to mobilize everyone now, lock the place down.” He could hear an alarm begin to sound over the audio feed and the young man was working furiously on the other end. “Under no circumstances do you allow whoever that is access to the site. Lock the tunnel entrance remotely.”

  “On it,” the Quileute responded heatedly.

  An aircraft landed on the runway, the lights slowing as the craft decreased speed. He looked at the sleek black Lear and knew instantly that it was Sean’s. “Fuck,” he uttered as he felt the rest of his hope die; he had been praying that it could have been anyone else but him.

  Then again, who else did he expect?

  “You didn’t think anyone else would just randomly land on an unknown airfield in the middle of the night, did you?” Ben openly read his mind.

  “I was hoping I wasn’t right,” he moaned. This was exactly what they didn’t need right now. The plane taxied into its hangar and came to a stop. It was out of view the moment it entered the opened doors and he waited patiently to see if his former friend would emerge from within. “How you doing on response?” he asked Arkansas.

  “They were all eating in the common room when this shit went down, they’re about to head out now,” the young man replied, his eyes glued to something off screen; more than likely the same feed they were watching.

  Feeds were coming online on the other monitors and the three other young faces flew into view. The other compounds must have been keeping an eye on inter-compound communications, because all of them showed the same apprehension on their faces. Ben hadn’t informed them about the evil that Sean had unleashed; but he had given them a warning that he was not to be allowed into any of the structures for any reason. They promised to explain later; now he was wondering if it was already too late.

  “Did Sean just land at the Washington compound?” Jenn asked over her feed.

  “It looks like it,” he responded quietly. How much did he want to go into this right now?

  It was as if Jenn was thinking along the same lines as she asked “why exactly aren’t we trusting the man again? Kind of hard to deny the man access to the compounds that he paid for.”

  Another feed came up on the monitors and he could tell from the angle and view that it was being broadcasted from aboard the Lear that had just landed. Sean’s face appeared and he was giving them all an appraising look. “I want to hear this too,” he said with that winning smile of his. He was acting like nothing had happened this morning; like he hadn’t faked his own death and ran away from them.

  “Do you really want to do this now?” he responded coldly, staring into the eyes of the man that he had grown to love and now had to figure out how to hate. What he had done was monstrous and there was no going back from that.

  “Why not? I’m sure we are all interested to hear what it is you think I’ve done, why I’m showing that all the security systems of the compound I just arrived at have been activated; like I’m some sort of unwanted intruder,” Sean returned smoothly. The others on the screens were starting to show some doubt, the man knew how to put on the charm.

  He grunted, understanding the man’s plan now, feeding on his need for secrecy to get himself into that compound unhindered. “Fine,” he finally stated and felt gratification when he saw a flash of annoyance on the older man’s face. “Our “friend” here wasn’t satisfied with the theory of a zombie apocalypse, so he hired a bunch of scientist to see if it was actually possible. What you see going on in the world right now? He’s the one responsible for it. All of it.”

  The look of disbelief that filled the others faces was apparent and it was obvious that none of them were buying it. “I hacked the systems of the compound where they made it guys, it’s true,” Ben chipped in.

  “You mean, you think it’s true. What proof do you have other than some computer file?” the man returned, trying to keep his face passive. “Do you know how mad you sound? That I would go through all this work, finance the very compound where your family is currently safe from this plague murdering the world, spend considerable amounts of money to upgrade and keep them top of the line; just to create a virus that would destroy the world? I was trying to provide places to save people, not a plague that kills them,” Sean told them all confidently; like he actually believed the shit he was shoveling.

  Ben coughed “bullshit” and he was forced to smile; even though there was absolutely nothing funny about this situation. “I forgot to mention this,” the young man advised, “since the internet servers were all restored I was able to do a bit more research; you weren’t counting on the government restoring our access, were you?” the young man inquired with a smile. He pulled up a video file, made sure that it was being shared with everyone, and hit play.

  There was a grizzled man with glasses on one half the screen and Sean’s clean shaven happy mug on the other.

  “I told you this was dangerous,” the man on the left raged. “We have no business playing God like this. We are barely in the testing phase, but already the applications and ramifications that this virus presents is beyond our current understanding. We don’t have the first clue how it works; much less how to fight it if it got out. You need to understand what I’m trying to say, we should destroy the sample immediately.”

  Sean was shaking his head on the right side of the screen. “There’s no way that I’m going to let you do that, Dr. Frisk. You knew what you were doing when you signed on and if you try anything of the kind, I will not only fire your ass, but I will have you blacklisted from the medical research community. You know my reach; do not take what I say lightly. You have made amazing progress, the reports on the tissue samples Dr. Wright sent over look very promising. Do you realize what will happen once it’s stable and we’re able to start human trials? We are talking about preventing death, healing the sick, maybe even regrow severed limbs. It’ll change the world and there is no way we’re going to back off now. You want to increase security? Fine. You want to restrict who’s handling it and increase the containment procedures around the lab? I’m on board. But I’m ordering you to proceed; do whatever it takes to make this thing stable or I will find someone else that will.”

  Ben was already double clicking another video and had a satisfied look on his face when another doctor’s face appeared on the screen. “No, we can’t find Dr. Frisk anywhere. It looks like he went into Lab Thirteen and removed a sample of the ReAm Virus. He’s not on site, the security teams have swept the whole complex. I cannot stress to you how volatile it is, we must find him immediately!”

  The window was closed and all of them wore identical masks of horror. “I really wished you hadn’t seen that,” Sean said with a sorrowful voice. Alarms suddenly blared over the speakers from multiple sources and he jumped as a Klaxon began blaring behind him. A red light was flashing and the doors automatically locked themselves. He knew that in that instant, all the blast doors were coming down across the compound; locking them in.

  “What are you doing?” he asked the man that used to be a close friend. “Ben?”

  “On it boss,” the young man hissed as he began loading command screens and typing furiously.

  Sean h
ad a grim look on his face as he glared at each of them through his webcam feed. “What I have to,” he said firmly. “Arkansas, I’m sorry.” He could hear the other man punching keys and the look of alarm on the Quileute’s face.

  “What are you doing?” the young man asked in panic and a sudden hissing sound could be heard over the audio feed.

  “Stop this!” he commanded the older man, but Sean was ignoring him.

  “Now, the rest of you have a decision to make. You can either leave me in peace, or I can do the same to each of you,” the man told them.

  On the monitor, he watched in horror as the young man in the Washington compound suddenly clutched his throat and tried to suck in air. He knew the system well to know that the fire suppression system had been activated and all the breathable air had been sucked out of that room. “I thought there were fail safes in place to prevent this,” he blurted out of fear as the young man on the monitor fell off his chair and out of sight. The monitor screen switched to a multiple camera view and all of them sat and watched helplessly as thirty or more people suddenly fell dead.

  “God Sean, have mercy,” he begged the man, but the firm set of the older man’s jaw told him that it had no effect on him. “Please.”

  “I can’t stop it,” Ben told him sadly, resigned to the fact that all those people were dying and there was nothing that he could do about it.

  “You aren’t the only one that I hired with computer skills son,” the man breathed into the mic as he came closer to the feed to look at them all. “Now, like I said, you can either agree to leave me alone, let me end my days in this compound I paid for, or you will all meet a similar fate. You can’t prevent it, all it takes is one stroke of a key and all of you will die. Right now. Tick tock, tick tock, Todd.”

  “You evil son of a bitch,” he snarled, his anger rising in his throat. As much as he knew that he had to play this safe, he couldn’t help the hate that was building within his heart. “We will leave you alone, I promise you that; all of us will be happier with you out of our lives.”

  The man smirked. “Those are lives I’m owed. If not for me, you’d be out there dying under the teeth of the monsters roaming the earth. You live now through my good graces. If I were you, I wouldn’t try to go back on your word, because Todd, I will be watching.”

  The video feed cut off. All of them let out a sigh of relief as the alarms cut off and the doors unlocked themselves. All around the compound things were returning to normal and he knew that any minute now the others would rush in here to find out what the hell was going on.

  “I couldn’t stop it,” Jenn told them, tears streaming from the corner of her eyes. “I tried Ben, there was nothing I could do.”

  “I know Jenn, I couldn’t either,” the young man responded, his own flowing freely.

  “And you need to remember that,” a voice said from the intercom behind them near the door. “You won’t know when I’m watching and if I catch you trying to stop me, or if you make any attempt to come up here to Washington, you won’t know until the doors lock that the end is coming. And not just for you, but all of you. Remember that Todd, there are six other compounds relying on your word; do not let them down.” It cut off and they were all left standing there stunned; unsure of what to do, what came next. There were security cameras everywhere, intercoms in every room, he could listen and watch everything they did every minute of every day.

  “What do we do now?” Ben asked him, his fear clear upon his face.

  “What can we do?” he returned and he heard a loud chuckle over the intercom behind them. You Goddamn son of a bitch, he sneered within his mind and he realized it was the only place Sean couldn’t penetrate. There were approaching footsteps from all directions and he slammed his fist into the table. “Son of a bitch!” he swore out loud and turned to greet the frenzied arrivals bursting through the door.

  Chapter 11

  Bed Head

  Todd

  Compound 2

  “Turn your ringer off,” he moaned; he was in the middle of a good dream and didn’t want to come out of it just yet.

  His wife grunted in return, ignoring his pleas.

  Pink was calling to him and her voice drove his eyes open. “It’s way too early for someone to be calling,” he groaned as he shook his wife’s shoulders. The phone was just out of reach and there was no way he’d get to it without getting up. “Monica!”

  She turned to look at him; her eyes suddenly open but not yet aware. “Whuh?”

  “I’m trying to sleep, turn your phone off,” he grumbled and laid back down. He attempted to close his eyes and return to the dream he had been having but it was slipping away from him. He absent-mindedly reached over his head to check the phone on his headboard and his hand impacted the wall instead. “Ow!” The pain in his wrist drug him full awake and back to reality. He wasn’t in his bed back home, he was in their living quarters in the compound. The phone was still ringing and now fully awake, he gave his wife a shove, propelling her forward and eliciting a stronger response.

  “What is your problem?” she snapped, glaring at him. Then the ringtone went off again and she jerked her head to the side table in response. She was in motion immediately and was saying hello even before her fingers had finished swiping the screen. “Mom?” she asked in disbelief. “What the hell? Are you okay?”

  He was up now and sitting on the edge of the bed, listening to her conversation. He looked at the intercom on the wall and wondered if someone else was monitoring it as well. Sean had set up their cellphones; he probably didn’t need the compound systems to hear their phone calls.

  “Is she all right?” he tried to ask but she held up her hand to silence him. He growled; he hated when she did that.

  “Mom, it’s been three days, why haven’t you answered any of my calls?” she asked with concern.

  He decided that since he was up, he might as well start a pot of coffee. It was five in the morning and he hadn’t gotten to bed until late; he was going to need the caffeine if he was going to make it through the day. Samantha had needed attention the night before and although he could remember the sex, he couldn’t figure out how he got back into this bed. Usually he alternated nights between them and he should’ve woken up next to her instead.

  He stretched his aching muscles and flexed his throbbing hand as he made his way towards the kitchen. The kids had turned in early and he tried to be quiet as he went about filling the empty pot with water.

  He heard footsteps behind and turned to greet his wife, only to see the morning tragedy that was his daughter. Her hair was sticking up at odd angles and her eyes were puffy as if she had been crying. As his older daughter walked forward, he opened his arms and embraced her.

  “What’s up?” he asked as he reached over with his left hand and started the coffee brewer. Then he returned to stroking her hair as she pressed her face against her chest and cried. “What’s the matter Sweetie?”

  “I tried to sleep, but every time I close my eyes, I see faces Daddy,” she sobbed into his chest.

  He started to rub her back, letting her cry it out. “What faces?”

  “My friends. Alexis, Sophia, Brittany. Linda and Jackie,” she cried, pausing to choke in another breathe. “Paul.”

  “Oh honey, don’t cry. I’m sure your friends are just fine,” he soothed her.

  “Dad, things aren’t like they used to be,” she croaked, pushing away enough to look him in the eyes. “You can’t just lie to me to make me feel better. Their faces are haunting me, watching me every time I close my eyes. I can’t make them go away.” She lowered her head against him once again and he placed his chin on her forehead, trying to think of a way to comfort her and coming up empty.

  “I don’t know what to say,” he finally whispered.

  She nodded into his chest. “Just don’t lie to me. I know things are bad out there and it doesn’t help to try and think of things any other way than how they are.”

  He couldn�
�t help but notice that the coffee was almost finished. He really hated the stuff, but he wasn’t ready to start popping cans of soda just yet. He was sure that even half a cup of Folgers would be enough to drag the rest of his brain out of bed and back into work. “We don’t know that they’re dead. I mean, okay, we lost the signal of Linda and Jackie’s phones, but they could just be broken. It’s only been a few days, maybe they’re held up somewhere safe and just haven’t gotten to a phone to call us yet. The only one we know for sure is Paul, sweetie. Your friends might be okay.”

  “They’re not okay, they’re dead,” she whispered into his shoulder.

  “You can’t know that,” he returned, not sure where all this was coming from.

  She nodded into her shoulder. “Yes, Daddy, I can.”

  It looked like she wanted to go on, but was interrupted as her mother came bursting into the kitchen. They both turned to see her red-eyed and grinning. “My sister and mom are okay! They’ve been hiding at mom’s house this entire time.”

  “And she didn’t think to call you back because—?” he pushed.

  She was grabbing creamer out of a cabinet drawer and reaching for a coffee mug. “Her phone charger was in the car and they didn’t go out to get it until last night. Her phone was dead.”

  “And they never once thought to go get it?” he asked, incredulous. “They don’t have any other way to charge their phones? Hell, unless it’s Apple, most of the jacks are universal!”

  His wife shook her head. “You know she lives in an apartment complex and she says that the place has been swarming with the undead for days. But last night something drew them away and so they made a run for it.”