The Lazarus Contagion: An apocalyptic horror novel (Dying Breed Book 1)

by Jacob Rayne

  ‘How do we do that?’

  ‘The crawlers will mature into flyers. In between is a transition period where they are vulnerable.’

  ‘Like caterpillars turning into butterflies?’

  ‘Yes, very similar.’

  ‘So do we go and get them now?’

  ‘No. Now they are hungry. They’d devour us. We need to wait until they are sated.’

  In the corridor, Florence dodged orderlies pushing gurneys and stretchers.

  She warned everyone who she encountered but they looked at her as if she was crazy.

  A glance over her shoulder revealed a dozen of the worm creatures already out in the corridor. The sight of them filled her with dread.

  She heard screams from down the corridor.

  Turned to see an orderly on the floor, a few of the creatures on him.

  His blue tunic was already showing dark patches of blood.

  More screams came from people who’d seen the orderly’s plight.

  A doctor ran to his aid, cutting one of the creatures in half with his scalpel. Black goo dripped from the wound. Both halves of the creature started moving and bit into the orderly.

  The doctor kicked out at the seething tide of black worms, knocking some of them back against the wall.

  As one of the worms bit into his leg, he screamed and reached down to pull it off. The teeth didn’t want to let go. He pulled harder, until the creature came away, taking a large lump of flesh with it.

  The smell of blood from the doctor’s leg seemed to draw more of the creatures.

  Where before they’d been surging in all directions, now they focussed on the doctor and the orderly.

  The doctor threw the creature in his hand away and started running up the corridor.

  A large group of the creatures followed him.

  The orderly disappeared beneath a writhing mass of darkness.

  Florence had seen enough.

  She’d watched from a safe distance but that headstart was dwindling as the mass of black worms pursued the fleeing doctor.

  ‘What the hell are those things?’ he bellowed.

  Florence ran, braying on every door she passed to alert those inside to the danger.

  Mark and Duggan had to take a breather at the top of the hill.

  On the way they’d picked up the fallen guard’s machine gun.

  After a second’s debate, Duggan had taken his gas mask too. ‘Now we’ve both got one,’ he said.

  ‘Why are they wearing the masks anyway?’ Mark asked.

  ‘No idea, son, but I’d guess it has something to do with those creatures that the guard mentioned.’

  ‘You’re probably right.’

  ‘Where are these cars you promised me, then?’

  ‘Fuck knows. Knowing our luck so far the road’s probably closed.’

  Duggan laughed then looked both ways.

  In both directions the blacktop stretched as far as the eye could see, with little to break it up.

  ‘Which way then, kid?’

  Mark shrugged.

  Duggan flipped a coin. ‘Right it is,’ he said, setting off towards the distant horizon.

  Outside the hospital there were scenes of utter pandemonium.

  After Florence had alerted people to the danger, the alarm had started to blare and the entire building had been evacuated.

  The evacuation broke every rule in the book. People were screaming and crushing each other to get out.

  At least two people had been trampled to death in the panic.

  The car park was clogged with traffic as people tried to flee the hospital.

  The mangled wreckage of a car and an ambulance blocked the exit.

  A few cars had tried to get through the hospital’s memorial garden, only to get stuck among the trees.

  Most people fled the scene on foot, Florence among them.

  It wasn’t long before the police appeared at the scene. They struggled to get any sense out of people, so a few officers ended up going into the hospital to see what was going on.

  ‘There were just these black worms everywhere,’ one bedraggled witness told the cops.

  ‘No, man, they was snakes,’ argued a second witness.

  None of it made much sense to the bewildered cops.

  Jeffries was one man to whom the events would have made too much sense.

  He knew that the drama at the hospital was because of the escapees from his labs. Knew that he was finished if the test subjects were traced back to him.

  He lit a cigarette, stared at the wall and picked up the phone.

  The team of policemen who’d gone inside the hospital had no idea what to expect.

  They heard screams off in the distance as they crept through the corridors.

  Charles was in charge, Baker and McGee there to watch his back.

  By the time they’d gotten close enough to see any of the victims it was too late for them.

  Charles was first.

  He’d seen what he’d taken as a loose wire dangling a few inches above him.

  As he moved to duck under it, making sure it didn’t touch him, it suddenly darted down at his face.

  Needle-like teeth dug into his temple, immediately drawing blood.

  He let out a cry and pulled at the thing’s tail, but the teeth were dug deep into his skin. If he yanked it off he reckoned he’d likely take most of his face with it.

  He pulled it a little, and used his knife to slash around the site of the creature’s mouth. A quarter-sized piece of skin came away, taking the creature with it. He swung it overhand, slamming its head into the wall.

  A small cloud of dark blood appeared on the wall and the creature went limp in his hand.

  For the hell of it he gave it another whack, widening the blood spatter, then threw the thing to the floor and wiped his hand on his slacks.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Baker asked in his gruff voice.

  ‘Fuck knows,’ Charles said.

  He eyed it warily. It was still, but he didn’t really want to go near it, just in case it wasn’t dead.

  McGee crept over to it and nudged it with his foot.

  It didn’t move.

  He grinned and gave his colleague a thumbs up.

  ‘Let’s get further in, see what’s going down,’ Charles said. The wound in his face stung, but he tried to focus on the job at hand.

  They moved deeper into the hospital, occasionally looking back at the creature that lay, unmoving, in a pool of blood on the floor.

  Sylvia was jolted from the news by a knock at the door.

  It was Alfie, Ray’s brother. His expression was that of a mourner at a funeral.

  ‘You need to come with me,’ he said.

  Sylvia’s brow furrowed.

  ‘There’s no time for questions. It’s not safe for you here.’

  Sylvia gasped. His words were making her skin crawl, filling her with a sense of foreboding.

  ‘I’ll pack some things and come with you,’ she said, her voice cracking.

  He shook his head sternly. ‘We need to leave right now. They’ll be on their way.’

  The wound on Charles’ face was bleeding severely now.

  He wondered if the creature had injected some deadly venom then scolded himself. Such things were fiction. It’d bit him and drawn blood, that was all.

  They reached the maternity ward, the scene of the first arrival of the worms.

  McGee gulped when he saw the scenes inside. There was blood splattered all up the walls. As yet, the owners of the blood were hidden from view.

  Around the next corner they found the body of an orderly. His flesh had been chewed from his body, leaving glistening bones and his blood-soaked uniform.

  ‘Shitting hell,’ Baker said.

  Charles said nothing.

  They heard a noise like the flapping of wings.

  Three pairs of eyes scanned the air.

  Three pairs of eyes saw nothing.

  They drew closer
to the body.

  ‘Something’s not right,’ Charles said.

  The words were no sooner out of his mouth than a number of the dark creatures burst out from beneath the dead orderly’s clothes. They went straight for Charles, moving with surprising speed.

  He stomped out at them but did little to stop their charge.

  For every one he stamped another three seemed to appear.

  Baker fired his gun into the tide of darkness. Thick clouds of black blood sprayed into the air.

  Charles fell as one of the creatures chewed through his achilles.

  As he hit the deck, he vanished from view, suddenly covered by the swarm of black worms.

  He felt them eating him alive. As he opened his mouth to scream a few of them crawled over his lips and started to bite into the lining of his throat.

  Others chewed into his eyes and crawled through into his skull.

  He felt them writhing inside his head, inside his chest, inside his bones.

  Mercifully he bled out minutes after they began their attack.

  McGee and Baker watched, paralysed, for a full minute.

  The sight of Charles’ bare bones shocked them into action; if they’d eaten most of the flesh from him already then they’d be after them soon.

  More of the creatures seemed to pour from every direction.

  They fell onto the terrified cops from the ceiling and the walls.

  In his panic, McGee tripped over a stretcher which had been abandoned.

  The first wave of creatures was on him in seconds, their needle-like teeth digging into the flesh on his calves.

  Baker ran and swung his boot at the creatures, knocking a couple off his colleague’s legs. The remaining group on his legs crawled up to his spine.

  McGee rolled, trying to crush them beneath his weight but they were surprisingly solid.

  Soon there were dozens on him.

  ‘Get out,’ he implored Baker, who already had several of the creatures scaling his legs.

  Baker ran, slamming his feet down hard in an attempt to dislodge the creatures that were attempting to feast on his legs.

  He looked back and found that he couldn’t see McGee. The corridor was full of the vile creatures.

  Baker ran, stumbling past the gurneys and discarded equipment and possessions left by the fleeing patrons of the hospital.

  He’d managed to dislodge the creatures from his legs, only their bites remained. Blood sluiced down the backs of his calves.

  He drew to a stop, no sign of the creatures in sight.

  Pulling in air like a drowning man, he made his way out into the daylight.

  All around the perimeter of the hospital were men in dark, military-style uniforms and gas masks.

  His cop colleagues were nowhere to be seen.

  He ran to one of the guards stood on the perimeter of the hospital.

  ‘Thank God,’ he said. ‘There are hundreds of those things in there. They got my two buddies. Thought they were going to get me too, but I got away with just a few bites on my legs.’

  The guard said nothing.

  The breathing behind the mask sounded harsh and laboured.

  ‘Can you kill those things?’ Baker asked.

  The man said nothing, just stood still.

  Then he raised his gun and shot Baker in the forehead.

  Jeffries was satisfied as he got off the phone with Selmo, his head guard.

  The cops had been taken out and the hospital perimeter secured. He’d have to see what to do about the creatures.

  For now, all the cops and reporters were dead, on their way to the hospital furnace.

  The damage had been controlled as much as possible.

  He just had to hope he’d gotten away with it.

  Subject I scaled the side of a house and climbed in through an open window on the first floor.

  A young man was asleep on the bed, a pair of headphones clamped to his ears.

  Subject I’s face twisted into a maleficent grin as he neared his next meal.

  He pulled the boy’s heart out of his chest and ate it greedily. Tucked into the boy’s warm flesh, craving the taste of the meat and the blood inside.

  Blood smeared his face and hands.

  He let out a cry of triumph as he felt his transformation beginning, fuelled by the copper in the blood he’d consumed.

  Soon he’d be free of this rotting human prison.

  Sylvia was exhausted trying to match Alfie’s pace as he led her on a snaking path through the graveyard. He glanced over his shoulder every few seconds, seemingly on the verge of absolute paranoid delusion.

  The church door creaked open as Alfie took one more look over his shoulder and stepped inside.

  ‘Sorry to scare you,’ he said, seeming to relax now that they were safely inside the church.

  He bolted the door.

  ‘Don’t worry, everything is going to be alright. Come in. There’s someone who’s dying to say hello.’

  Subject I knew his race was capable of slaying humanity, but he also knew that it would be a while before their numbers were sufficient to do so.

  His race were known for their cunning and he had come up with a plan which would tip the scales firmly in their favour.

  If the plan worked they could take earth.

  It was an added bonus that his plan would also give him the chance to wreak bloody vengeance on the man who had been behind all the poking, prodding and testing he’d been subject to.

  Using his mind to probe around the area, he heard a bewildering array of thoughts, most of which repulsed him.

  Humanity were such a weak, corrupt race, always trying to plan each other’s downfall.

  Well, he’d use their weakness against them.

  Humanity’s tendency to betray and destroy would be their downfall.

  Mark and Duggan were sweating and dehydrated in the evening sun. They’d walked for miles without even the hint of a car coming by, seeing nothing that even broke up the scenery, just arid, sun-baked earth.

  ‘I hope someone drives by soon,’ Duggan said. ‘Or we’re goners, kid.’

  Mark didn’t want to waste energy speaking, so he just nodded.

  A car came out of the shimmering heat wave.

  Duggan nudged Mark and pointed ahead.

  The boy looked up from the blacktop and saw the car.

  ‘Please tell me I ain’t imagining that,’ Duggan said.

  ‘No. It’s there alright.’

  ‘Good.’

  The car drew closer.

  Before Mark could do anything to stop him, Duggan had run into the middle of the road and fired the shotgun into the air then lowered the weapon so it was pointing in the driver’s startled face.

  The car screeched to a halt, almost hitting Duggan’s legs. He didn’t seem to care.

  ‘Outta the car, Mister,’ he said.

  Mark stared at him in disbelief. As desperate as they were there was no need to commit grand theft auto.

  The shotgun discharged again, startling Mark out of his guilty thoughts.

  ‘Next one’s coming through the windshield, ’less you get your ass out here right now,’ Duggan said.

  The driver opened the door and got out.

  ‘Hands on the roof. No sudden movements.’

  ‘I don’t know what you’re doing out here, son, but you’re in big trouble. I’m a state trooper.’

  Mark gasped at this revelation.

  ‘Shut it,’ Duggan told the cop. ‘Or you’ll be a dead state trooper. You carrying?’

  ‘Glock in the glove box. Another on my right hip.’

  Duggan checked him and took the gun from his hip.

  ‘Mark, get in the car and take the gun out of the glove box.’

  Mark hesitated, not wanting to get involved.

  ‘Get in the fucking car.’

  Mark did as he was told, taking the gun out of the glove box and tucking it into his waistband.

  ‘You, stay still. Mark, if he mo
ves put a hole in his head.’

  Duggan quickly frisked the cop, finding no other weapons. He eyed the faded gold ring on the cop’s finger.

  ‘You want to live to see your wife again you do as I say, y’ get me?’

  The cop nodded, his face a picture of calm. It was obviously not the first time he’d been car-jacked.

  ‘Now, since I’m a nice guy I’m not gonna leave you out here. You’ll drive us to our destination. You disobey me, you try any shit and you’ll not make it home tonight. Is that clear?’

  ‘Crystal,’ the cop said. Still, he looked like this was all everyday stuff to him.

  ‘You got cuffs?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Mark, cuff his left hand to the wheel. He’ll need his other hand for the gears. Shame it ain’t automatic.’

  Mark reached out and took the cuffs from the cop’s belt.

  The cop got into the driver’s seat, prompted by Duggan shoving the shotgun barrel into the back of his neck.

  Mark cuffed his left hand to the wheel, just like Duggan had said.

  ‘You’ll get serious time for this, son,’ the cop said, fixing Mark with a baleful stare. ‘Your dad’ll get longer, but you’ll go away for a long time.’

  Mark thought about saying that Duggan wasn’t his dad, but he let it go.

  Duggan noticed this and smiled.

  ‘Shut the fuck up and drive,’ Duggan told the cop.

  ‘Whatever you’ve got in mind, you’re going to get the book thrown at you,’ the cop said.

  ‘Just drive,’ Mark said.

  The cop decided not to push his luck and did as he was told. ‘Where we going?’

  ‘Just head to the next town,’ Duggan said. ‘We’ll decide when we’ve been fed and watered.’

  The cop pulled away, an expression of calm indifference on his face.

  ‘Hello, Sylvia,’ Ray smiled, his image blurred by the tears that streamed from her eyes.

  ‘I felt you die,’ she said, running her hands over the familiar contours of his face. ‘How is this possible?’

  ‘They brought me back to life,’ he breathed. ‘Part of some experiment. There are horrible things going on in that test facility.’

  ‘How did they bring you back to life?’

  ‘They put something in me. I can feel it, in my mind and under my skin. It’s trying to control me, but I can resist it.’ He turned to indicate the lump on the back of his head.