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

by Jacob Rayne

  She gasped. ‘What the hell is that?’

  ‘I don’t know. But it wants me to kill and dismember. It craves blood and death.’

  ‘Can we get it out?’

  ‘Yes, but I would die. I don’t mind – I’m of the firm belief that what is dead should stay dead – but I can maybe help to stop the others.’

  ‘This is all…’

  ‘I know, Sylvia. I know.’ He pressed a finger onto her cheek. She started at how cold his skin felt. ‘They are looking for me, but I’m ready for one hell of a fight. I can’t be with you until this is all over, but Alfie will help you.’

  Alfie nodded.

  ‘I’ll let this all sink in.’

  Sylvia sat down, suddenly feeling weak and dizzy.

  Hammett looked out into the room through the Plexiglas.

  So far only one person had been in, a young female scientist.

  He was starting to get cabin fever.

  He needed to get out but wasn’t sure if it was even possible.

  The door was shocked again, he’d discovered that from painful experience.

  He doubted the scientists ever opened the doors – such a thing was asking for trouble – but if they did he was going to carve them a new one with the scalpel he’d stolen from the doctor.

  It was just a case of waiting, he hoped.

  While Sylvia tried in vain to figure out what was going on, Ray sat tending to the wounds of a man in a cowboy hat.

  ‘Morning, I’m Captain Abbott of the US marine corps,’ the man in the Stetson grinned.

  ‘Pleased to meet you. I’m Sylvia, Ray’s wife.’

  Abbott doffed his hat to her. ‘Pleased to make your acquaintance, Sylvia. You’re a lucky woman. Ray here is really something.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  She looked at Ray, unsure of how to behave around him.

  She felt like an awkward teenager all over again.

  ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said.

  ‘I’ve missed you too.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt but all holy hell’s broke loose,’ Abbott said. ‘People playing with things they shouldn’t.’ He paused a moment, realising he’d put his foot in it, then added. ‘No offence, Ray.’

  ‘I agree with you. Dead should mean dead. No half measures.’

  ‘So what do we do?’ Sylvia said.

  ‘You do nothing,’ Abbott said. ‘Me and hubby here’ll take care of this.’

  ‘Yes,’ Ray said. ‘Alfie is going to look after you. Me and Captain Abbott are going to sort out this mess.’

  ‘I don’t think you should do this. Those things sound dangerous.’

  ‘They are,’ Ray said. ‘But so am I. Just ask Captain Abbott there.’

  Abbott made an exaggerated wince and rubbed at his wrist. ‘Damn near broke my hand right off,’ he drawled.

  ‘Be careful,’ Sylvia said. ‘I don’t want to lose you again.’

  ‘Dead means dead,’ Ray repeated.

  ‘So the hospital is secure now?’ Jeffries said.

  ‘Yes,’ Selmo reported. ‘All witnesses have been neutralised.’

  ‘Good work. I’ll send you and Samantha to the Bahamas after this is all over.’

  ‘Thanks, Sir.’

  ‘You’re welcome.’

  ‘What do we do next?’

  ‘Make sure no one comes back to the hospital. If they do send them the same way as the cops.’

  ‘Understood. What do we do about the creatures?’

  ‘I haven’t decided yet. We should probably try and destroy them but I wouldn’t mind keeping some of them for testing. Just leave them for now.’

  ‘Yes, Sir.’

  ‘If you need me use the private line. I’m going to keep my head down for a while.’

  ‘Ok, Sir.’

  Jeffries hung up and went out to the waiting car.

  ‘So how long will it be before these things start to change?’ Abbott asked.

  ‘Depends how much blood they’ve consumed. If it’s a lot it’ll be pretty soon. May be a little longer if they need to feed some more. I imagine they’ve surrounded the area around the hospital to stop them getting out.’

  ‘Hopefully, yeah.’

  ‘So we’ll give it another hour then head over there.’

  ‘Sounds good to me. Just hope I don’t have to run.’ Abbott let out a low chuckle.

  Ray didn’t seem to see the funny side.

  ‘That bulge on your head taken your sense of humour?’ Abbott grinned.

  Ray said nothing.

  ‘So how do we kill these things?’

  ‘Fire,’ Ray said. ‘While they’re changing they’re highly flammable due to the chemicals unleashed by the process.’

  ‘So we flame grill the fuckers? Ha, ain’t nothing a good fire can’t kill.’

  ‘It’s only fair to warn you that even if they are in the process of changing there will be a few of them around to act as guards.’

  ‘Nothing we can’t handle, I’m sure.’

  ‘I hope you’re right.’

  ‘I’m going to have to pull into the next gas station,’ the cop told Duggan.

  Duggan cursed. ‘Do you have to?’

  ‘Yep. Else you feel like drying up like an old prune pushing the car in this heat.’

  ‘Can you not make it to the next town?’

  ‘Nope. Fuel gauge is showing next to nothing.’

  Duggan squinted over the cop’s shoulder and saw that he was telling the truth.

  ‘Best pull in, then.’

  Ray and Abbott were amazed by the number of guards at the hospital.

  There were close to thirty of the sinister gas-masked, black-clad men.

  ‘Don’t fancy our chances here, Ray, I gotta admit.’

  ‘No, me neither. Think we’d best come up with a new plan.’

  ‘Like blowing the place up?’

  ‘Unfortunately not. We need to make sure they all burn.’

  ‘Any ideas?’

  ‘Not yet. I hadn’t figured they’d try to protect the place.’

  ‘Best get thinking before those guys spot us.’

  The cop pulled into the petrol station.

  ‘Right then,’ he said. ‘You wanna uncuff me so I can go fuel up?’

  ‘Yeah, cos I was born yesterday,’ Duggan scoffed. ‘I’ll fill it up. Give me your wallet.’

  The cop frowned but pulled out his wallet with his free hand.

  ‘If he tries anything shoot him,’ Duggan said, getting out of the car.

  He pumped the gas until the tank was full then went into the store to pay.

  The cop bent down and scratched his leg. ‘Think something’s bit me,’ he said, frowning.

  Mark kept the gun trained on him but saw no harm in him scratching his calf.

  Too late he saw the small pistol the cop pulled from his boot.

  Before he could do anything he felt a burning pain in his stomach. He pulled the trigger, hitting the cop in the arm.

  Streaks of blood flew up the windshield.

  Mark’s world seemed to close in, as his peripheral vision shut down.

  He dimly saw Duggan running out of the gas station, a look of horror on his face.

  ‘You fucker,’ Duggan shouted, heaving the door open and giving the cop both barrels in the face.

  For the second time in his life, Mark felt someone else’s brain on his face.

  ‘Shit, are you alright, kid?’

  Mark had time to shake his head then the world closed in on him.

  Duggan pulled the dead cop out of the driver’s seat and shoved him into the back of the car.

  He wheel spun the car out of the gas station before the attendant had chance to notice the blood smeared all over the inside of the windscreen.

  The nearest hospital was on the outskirts of Taunton, so he raced towards it, praying he wasn’t about to lose another son.

  Hammett couldn’t believe his eyes when he looked up to see a male scientist standing over him.

&nb
sp; Moving with a speed he didn’t know he possessed, he slashed the scalpel across the scientist’s knee.

  The Taser the scientist had held bounced off the floor as he fell. His knee poured with blood.

  Hammett stamped on the wound, drawing an extra cry of pain from the hapless lab geek, then drove his boot into the scientist’s chin.

  He picked up the Taser and slammed the door behind him.

  Seeing no one to stop him, he made his way out into the complex, heading in the direction in which he’d seen the female test subject escape.

  Subject I let out a bone-chilling scream as he felt his true limbs start to penetrate the rotting carcass of his human form.

  Though the skin was dead, it still gave him intense pain as it was sheared away from his new form.

  Black, gleaming chitin poked through the gaps in his limbs.

  He screamed again as convulsions racked him.

  The skin fell away from his head, revealing a blackened skull.

  He felt a quaking in his spine that seemed to penetrate every fibre of his being, as intense as the aftermath of a major operation.

  His head and spine seemed to pulse hard. It felt as though giants were having a tug of war with him.

  Finally, gobbets of flesh and blood flew through the air as his human body fell away from the shoulders down.

  His head remained, though black and bulging to accommodate the growing creature at the base of his skull.

  His spine, now hard as iron, also remained, dark limbs extending from it.

  The limbs at the base of the spine where his ribs had been were sharp and covered in tiny hairs, sensitive to the slightest touch.

  The arms which emerged from where his shoulders had been were hard and black and sharp, with the forearms curved and keen like the blade of a scythe.

  His spine stretched, making him roughly seven feet tall. His legs scratched at the floor, trying for purchase.

  He felt transformed.

  Complete.

  Raising his dark face to the sky he let out a screech of triumph.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Abbott asked upon hearing the distant cry.

  ‘That’s the leader of our enemies.’

  ‘Sweet mother of God. What the fuck are we supposed to do against that?’

  Ray was saved from answering by the sound of an approaching car.

  Abbott staggered to his feet and ran over to the car, moving much better on his damaged leg since Ray’s attentions.

  He waved his arms above his head.

  The car screeched to a halt.

  ‘What’s going on?’ asked the driver of the car.

  ‘You’re dead if you go into the grounds of that hospital,’ Abbott said. ‘Sure as God’s in his heaven.’

  ‘The fuck’re you talking ’bout?’ Duggan asked.

  Abbott couldn’t make out the driver’s face through the haze of gore on the windshield.

  ‘Trust me,’ Abbott said. ‘I’m armed, but I got nothin’ in my hands. Can I approach the car?’

  ‘Yeah. Go ahead. Hands where I can see ’em though.’

  ‘I’m Captain Lance Abbott of the US Marine corps. My colleague there is Ray. Don’t know his second name.’

  ‘I’m Duggan. The boy’s Mark.’

  Abbott shook hands with Duggan. ‘Good to meet ya, Duggan. Mark. Now I suggest you get outta here. This place is overrun with armed guards and fuck knows what else.’

  ‘Can’t do that, I’m afraid. My son’s bleeding to death. Damn cop shot him.’

  ‘Hope you got him back.’

  ‘Damn right I did. Fucker’s dead in the back seat.’

  ‘Duggan, this hospital’s gone. No doctors in sight. Only death waits for you here.’

  ‘Where do we go?’

  ‘You take us with you and we’ll help the boy.’

  ‘Now you got a face I can trust. Get your ass in here.’

  Abbott climbed in and beckoned Ray over.

  ‘Not so sure about your friend,’ Duggan said.

  ‘He’s fine, trust me.’

  ‘If you’re tricking me you’ll wish those men with guns got you first.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Abbott said. ‘You can trust us.’

  ‘Go on. Tell your buddy to get in.’

  Ray climbed in, taking great care not to show the back of his head to Duggan. The cop’s body made it awkward for him to get in.

  ‘Just tip him out,’ Duggan said.

  Ray did so and settled into the seat. The cop’s blood was still warm beneath him.

  ‘So where we headed, gents?’ Duggan asked.

  Inside the hospital rows of the dead hung from the ceiling.

  They were engorged with gases and shining in the dim light.

  The hospital was eerily quiet save for a few of the black worms patrolling the corridors, ensuring nothing endangered their kin when they were at their most vulnerable.

  It would be a few hours before the moth creatures emerged from their shells.

  Florence couldn’t put the events at the hospital out of her mind. The scenes inside were bad enough, but things had gone even more downhill when the gas-masked guards had appeared and gunned down all of the survivors.

  Florence had managed to sneak away while bullets blasted holes in terrified faces and had got far enough away for the screams and gunshots to have faded into the distance.

  The events were so surreal and terrifying that she actually began to believe that she’d imagined it.

  As frightened as she was she felt a strong sense of duty to those mown down so mercilessly. She had her phone on her. A video, even a photo, of the corpses would get them the recognition they deserved, instead of being buried in unmarked graves as part of some brutal conspiracy.

  The idea filled her with dread, but she knew there was no other way to get closure.

  She made her way back across town on foot, as her car was still trapped in the hospital lot.

  Roughly three blocks from the hospital, she saw the first armed guard.

  He looked like the grim reaper himself.

  Instinctively, she knew that if he saw her she’d end up like everyone else who’d come out of the hospital: in a tangled heap, her carcass torn with bulletholes like sorrowful eyes that seeped crimson tears.

  Duggan pulled into the parking lot behind the church and carried Mark inside.

  ‘He’s in a bad way,’ Abbott said. ‘That’s a deep wound.’

  ‘I know,’ Duggan said. ‘What can we do to save him?’

  Ray moved over to Mark and reached inside his chest.

  He groped around for a few seconds, pulling out a crumpled slug and holding it up to the light.

  With the plug released, the blood started to gush from the wound.

  Ray used a blade in his pocket to rip open the side of his hand and then laid it on Mark’s wound.

  After a few minutes the wound sealed, leaving only a faint scar on Mark’s belly.

  Duggan and Abbott couldn’t believe their eyes.

  ‘What’s the score there?’ Abbott asked.

  Ray turned, feeling their eyes upon him. ‘One of the perks of this walking purgatory. We have been engineered to heal quickly and our blood can help to repair the damage in normal humans. Of course that side of things is overlooked. They only want to use us as weapons.’

  ‘Is he ok?’ Duggan said.

  ‘He’s still in a bad way,’ he said. ‘So don’t get your hopes up. But he should be fine.’

  ‘What the hell’s going on here?’ Duggan said.

  ‘All to do with Ray here,’ Abbott said.

  ‘Has this got anything to do with the men in gas masks?’

  ‘Yeah. They’re trying to make sure there are no witnesses. Trying to cover up the escapees from their little experiments.’

  Florence managed to sneak past the first guard and onto the edge of the hospital grounds.

  It made her stomach clench when she saw the assembled guards between her and the hospital but
she had come so far now that she refused to turn back.

  Her guts did a cartwheel when she got a proper look at the dozens of bodies strewn across the floor, a tangled mass of dead eyes, lifeless limbs and blood-smeared flesh.

  Just beside the place where she’d concealed herself she found a manhole cover. It looked sealed tight, but lifted when she gave it a tug.

  She checked around for a better way into the hospital, and, failing to see one, lowered herself into the tunnel.

  Alone in the reeking darkness, she realised how unprepared she was. She had no torch, (not wanting to waste the precious battery on her phone) much less a weapon for self-defence.

  The sewers were dimly lit, revealing just enough to give her imagination something to torture her with. Dark shapes loomed at her from out of the twilight.

  At first they were just pieces of metal or brickwork, the geometry of the sewer.

  But as she neared the hospital, the dark shapes became more organic, more sinister, more alive.

  The first one that made her stop was a black, distended form looming down from the ceiling.

  She tentatively poked it with a finger, recoiling from the slick matter as if it was a hot stove, then snapped a couple of photos.

  The shape swung back and forth a little, clear liquid dripping down its sides.

  As it came into view, she saw that it was a human body, coated in a thick layer of black sludge. The face was twisted into a mask of terror and agony. The skin around its torso and legs bulged, as though dozens of tiny creatures were trying to make their way out of their host.

  She rushed past it, eager to get the repulsive object out of her sight.

  As she made her way through the darkness, she saw more of the hanging bodies complete with their coating of black sludge.

  They seemed to become more numerous as she neared the hospital.

  Hammett progressed as best he could through the darkness.

  He’d moved on, inch by agonising inch, often banging his head or legs on unseen obstacles.

  As he passed the cells of the test subjects, he felt their eyes upon him. The feeling made him uncomfortable, but strengthened his resolve to get away from the laboratories.