by mike Evans
Danny bumped into the lab door and without looking away from the monsters, inserted his key card into the its slot. The door beeped and the lock clicked open. Danny grabbed the door lip and just as he was going to pull the door open enough to slip through, the monster that was Eric started moving toward him along with the others. Danny screamed out and slipped into the lab, pulling with all his might to close the door. An arm slipped in and grasped the door, trying to pull it back open. Danny reached back and grabbed the first thing his hand could find, and luckily it was a wrench that had been left behind by the guys who had built Gunther. Danny put all his weight into pulling on the door, pounding on the monster’s arm with the tool. He was able to break it, but the creature still held on but had lost strength and couldn’t pull on the door with as much. Danny pulled again and felt the door start to close, finally slamming shut as the locks clicked into place. Danny nearly fell to the ground when he heard a moan and hissing sound. He spun quickly gained his balance again, and saw Eric standing there. He must have somehow slipped in after Danny had broken his arm with the wrench.
Danny jumped back raised his wrench and slammed it into Eric’s shoulder, cracking it. But Eric showed no notice of the damage or pain. Instead he lurched forward and tried to bite Danny. Danny’s arm stung with the strength he was putting into his swings of the wrench. Every impact travelled up his arm and into his shoulder. He was already tired and; he knew skipping the gym for the last two years was a bad idea. Eric reached out with his undamaged arm and was able to grasp onto Danny’s lab coat, pulling with a strength that surprised Danny. As Eric pulled Danny closer and closer to his blood filled mouth and broken teeth, Danny started to panic even more than before. He scrambled to come up with an idea to get away from Eric and stop him. As Eric pulled, he craned his mouth closer and closer to Danny’s throat, Danny unbuttoned his lab coat and slipped out of it, moving quickly around a lab table to put distance between him and Eric. Eric sniffed at the lab jacket and dropped it to the floor as he wobbled after Danny, almost tripping over cords and a chair. It was like Eric didn’t notice the obstacles in his way, he just made a beeline toward Danny.
Danny looked around trying to figure out an escape and quickly dismissed the door back into the main office. He was certain the monsters out there would get him. He looked toward his laptop and spotted his cellphone on his desk. Danzig’s song “Mother” was pumping through the speakers, creating a haunting environment. Danny ran to his desk, grabbed his cell, and ran to the far side of the lab trying to give himself some breathing room to make a call. He punched 911 into his phone and jabbed the dial button. He raised the phone to his ear and listened, waiting for the ringing to start. Nothing. No sound, no static nothing came from the device. He looked down at it and saw it had full signal but the call was not going out. Danny shoved the phone deep into his front pocket and looked back to his desk and at his desk phone. He watched Eric make his way slowly toward him and planned a way around him back to the other side of the lab and back to his desk.
Eric got closer and closer and tripped over a conduit on the floor. Danny took the opportunity to spring into action, running around the back of a server rack and around Gunther to slide into his chair. He picked up his phone and pressed the security button. Again nothing. Danny swore under his breath and pushed nine on the phone dial pad to gain an outside line but no dial tone came. He slammed the phone onto its cradle and looked down at his laptop. He grabbed the mouse and opened a browser window on his desktop. When he attempted opening a tab he got that annoying page saying that his internet connection was down or the page was not recognized.
“Fuck!” he yelled out to no one and felt his chair being pulled backwards. He screamed in frustration and surprise then kicked his chair backward and ran over to Gunther and his station.
Eric was on the ground again, attempting to get up but had his feet were entangled in the wheels of Danny’s chair. Danny grasped a spare power cable and looked at the connectors. He could use this as a weapon, he was sure of it, but couldn’t figure out how to make it work without frying himself. He looked over at the other side of the power cable and then came up with a plan. He reached over and hit the power switch to the console, snatched a pair of pliers lying nearby and got to work ripping the connector off and exposing the bare wires underneath. He constantly glanced over and watched as Eric finally gained his feet slowly working his way toward him. Danny wrapped a cloth around the cable three inches away from the damaged connector and bare wires, then hit the switch to repower the cable. He heard the hum and watched as sparks came out of the end of the cable. Danny waited for Eric to come closer as his mind worked to time his movements, and imagined the steps he had to take to kill Eric.
Finally, Eric lunged forward. Danny shoved the cable into Eric’s mouth, punched his jaw closed around the end of the cable and tried to let go, instead he fell onto his ass from the shock of the power flooding into Eric. He sat there and watched Eric’s body shake and vibrate, and soon smoke started to spill from Eric’s mouth. His hair on his head quickly caught fire. Danny got to his feet and looked down to his hands to find them slightly singed, and his arms hurt as if he had lifted heavy weights for hours. Before the lab could catch fire he ran to the power console and turned it off Eric’s body fell to the ground dislodging the cable from his mouth and slamming his head onto the concrete floor. Danny pulled the cable out of the power console and threw it on the ground. Turning the power back on so Gunther could continue to charge.
The stench from burning human flesh and hair flooded through the room and Danny grabbed the nearest garbage can, and vomiting the hotdog and the bagel he had eaten earlier in the day. He slid to his knees and felt the flood of adrenaline leave his body, causing him to begin to shake. An ache climbed up from his lower back to his head, threatening to crack open his skull. He sat and tried to relax to get through the worst of his pain but made sure to keep his eyes on Eric’s body to make sure it did not move again. He sat there for almost an hour till the pain he had been feeling finally ebbed to a slight dull throb he could manage. He took his gaze off of Eric deciding that if he was going to get up he would have already. He reached up and grabbed onto the table using it to help lift himself off the floor and onto shaky legs.
He grabbed Eric’s arm and dragged his body to the far side of the lab, to leave it in the furthest corner he could. Danny walked back to his desk, picked up his chair, and threw himself into it as he closed his eyes to think about the situation he found himself in. He sat there for a good twenty minutes and may have dozed off a bit, but he was unsure. When he opened his eyes, he felt slightly refreshed, yet still in a state of shock over everything he had endured. He turned slowly in his chair and looked over the lab. He had Gunther, various computers, left over robotic parts and that was mainly it. The lab was built with Kevlar in the walls and the windows had been built so that no radio or any other kind of interference could wreak havoc with their projects. So he had no escape that way. He also knew the ceiling had been reinforced, so he couldn’t get out that way either. Simply put, he was in a reinforced Kevlar and steel box, with only one exit. The only weapon he had was a wrench, and he knew that he wouldn’t last more than a minute at most if he tried to escape through the office. He was spam in a can, and the thought made him laugh more than it should have. Then he thought to himself, that he had no food except for a couple of granola bars, an apple, and a small bag of pretzels in his desk. He did have two flats of water he had brought in the other day from Costco though.
“Just wish I could call my mom, girlfriend or anyone.” He did have plenty of music to keep him busy, so that went into the good to have column.
Danny got off his chair and checked the lab door making sure the locks were engaged and then used his security code to lock from the inside so no one else could barge in. Now that he felt secure he decided he needed a real nap since he had been in his office for forty hours working on Gunther’s program. Danny cleared off one of th
e lab tables and grabbed another lab coat from the coat rack near the door folding it into a pillow. He hopped up onto the table and laid down, finding the most comfortable position he could and promptly fell asleep.
He dreamed of a big family get together which he and his girlfriend Heather attended. They sat in the backyard of his parent’s house drinking beer and eating barbecue while watching his little cousins swim in the pool. He felt happy. He felt content. But then a shadow fell over him and he looked up to find the sun was being enveloped by giant black clouds. A scream brought his attention toward the pool as the fence separating the neighbor’s yard came tumbling down. Then the monsters were there, covered in blood and gore, some missing limbs or holes in their bodies with their intestines hanging out. The kids ran toward the grownups who ushered them into the house. Danny stood, grabbed Heather, and pushed her toward the house. After she was inside, he picked up a shovel from the little flower bed he had been sitting next to. He ran forward and started swinging the shovel at the monsters as they advanced. His dad and brother appeared next to him armed with a rake and baseball bat. They helped him try to keep the monsters at bay, but were taken down and ripped apart. Blood curdling screams erupted from their mouths as they begged him to help.
Danny knew he couldn’t so he continued to swing and attack the monsters swinging with all his might. For every one he took down, four more came through the fence. He was tiring and the shovel’s blade was starting to bend and became less effective with every swing. He turned and ran to the house, but he was stunned at what he saw. The sliding glass window was covered in blood and bits of skin. He realized the house must have been full of those things and his mother and cousins had to have walked into a trap and were attacked. He picked up another bat he saw on the deck and moved toward the house when the window exploded outward and his dead mother, girlfriend and cousins shambled out. They headed right for him. He screamed every time he swung the bat and took down a loved one. He felt his psyche crack and splinter under the damage he was inflicting on them. He stood in the middle of the deck knee deep in bodies when Heather finally walked toward him. Her once beautiful body was mutilated by bites, her breasts hanging by bits of skin, and a large hole in her abdomen, like they had hollowed her out. Danny tried to lift the bat, but his arms felt like they were made out of lead and he couldn’t use them so they hung limp at his sides. He looked around to see if anyone was still alive and could help him when he felt Heathers hands grasps his shoulders. He knew there was nothing he could do and that he was at the end of his life. She darted her head in and bit down on the side of his neck. He didn’t feel pain, just pressure and heard a ripping sound. She pulled her head back and chewed on a piece of flesh she had pulled from him.
He tried to cry, and to beg, but nothing came out. Suddenly, Danny was falling and awoke as he collided onto the cold concrete floor. Somehow his head was spared as he rolled to his side when he hit. He laid there for a second then threw his hands up to his neck and searched for the gaping wound he was certain was there. He didn’t find anything and sighed out loud.
“Just a fucked up dream.” He rolled onto his back and felt the bruises that were surely forming on his back and ass. He stretched on the floor and used the table to stand again. He was afraid to let go of in case he lost his balance and fell. He breathed quickly through his nose and tried to calm himself. When he felt better he slowly made it over to his chair and crumbled into it. He looked back at his coffee pot and decided he needed a shot of caffeine. He rolled his chair over, filled the water reservoir using three bottles of spring water, inserted fresh grounds into a new filter and set the machine to brew. Once done he rolled back to his desk and removed the apple. “Might as well eat this before it goes bad” he said to himself.
He sat back in his chair planted his feet on the desk and ate his apple, slowly relishing in the normalcy of it. He could smell the coffee percolating and found he was starting to feel normal again. When he finished the apple he threw it across the walkway into the trash bin, then rolled over and poured himself a large amount of coffee. He rolled back to the computer and without thinking pulled up the diagnostics for Gunther and started charting and analyzing them. It took ten minutes before he realized that this didn’t matter anymore. “I need to find a way out of here. Maybe I can make a weapon out of all the spare parts.” Danny had always been the type to talk out loud to himself and he found it helped with the thinking process. He picked up his pen, shoved it in his mouth and started to chew the end. A habit he picked up in college and it somehow survived through the years. He glanced at the table of spare parts, stood, and stalked over to them.
He looked through the actuators, sensors, and metal tubing and went through the process of categorizing and making piles of like parts. He sat back and let his mind wander over his small cache of parts.
“I could easily make a mechanical arm, but I can’t see how that would help. I could make a motorized chair out of treads, but I won’t be able to protect myself when they get in my way. Wish I had a machine gun or something. Or a giant Taser like the one I killed Eric with. None of these ideas are helpful. Gunther is lucky he could easily drive those things since he can’t be bitten or hurt.” He stopped at that last thought and turned so he could stare at Gunther. A wicked smile formed on his lips and a low chuckle escaped.
“’I’m going to make a fucking bad ass battle bot!” Danny shouted out loud and thrust his right fist in the air.
He sauntered to Gunther, took out his notebook, and started his design plans. Once he had a workable plan he went to work modifying Gunther. First, he removed the plastic shroud over Gunther’s chest and tracks.
“First, I need to armor you up so you can take a lot of damage. Probably need to up your battery capacity, also. Don’t want you to run out of juice before you can finish your job.” Danny disconnected the small battery pack and modified the holder so he could quadruple the batteries giving Gunther enough power to run for an hour or more. Too bad the new batteries they had ordered from Tesla hadn’t arrived yet. Just one of those could run Gunther for hours without needing to charge. Danny found a way to wire the batteries in sequence using the power cord he had zapped Eric with. He hadn’t used a soldering iron in a while but after some practice he had it mastered again.
Next, he took some left over Aluminum they had used to make Gunther’s skeleton and cut out what he thought he needed.
“Now to remember how to weld.”
He pulled out the 230 Mig Welder rig they had in the shop and hoped he had enough fuel to run it. He shrugged on the welder’s cape, gloves, and helmet with face shield, then grabbed some scrap metal he had no use for. Danny practiced for hours till he felt he had the hang of it. Just then his stomach growled and told him he needed a break. After another cup of coffee, cold this time, and two granola bars he felt more human and jumped back into his work. He worked on building a kind of roll cage for Gunther that he attached around the treads and battery compartment, then made a new one for Gunther’s head and main processor. Once done, he stood back and admired his work.
“It won’t win any beauty contests, but at least it’s functional. Now let’s see if I can bulk up your manipulators and create you some weapons.”
He knew Gunther had one really good weapon. The saw could cut through the monsters like a hot knife through butter. But Gunther had three more arms and he needed to find a way to get some usefulness out of them. He went back to his chair and that was when the exhaustion hit him again. He decided that instead of powering on and maybe make a dumb mistake he would take a quick power nap. He planted his feet on his desk leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.
He dreamed and this time he was in a warehouse monsters everywhere and coming straight for him. A loud sound came through the cavernous room. It was a voice.
“Danny, I’m coming. Battle mode activated.” Gunther was there and he was destroying the monsters in many ways. He knocked them down, and ran them over with his treads
as well as swinging his blade back and forth to cut through their limbs, head, and torsos. He looked like an alien laying waste on the horde. One arm shot flames from it and the other two worked at grabbing the monsters and smashing their heads together. Danny couldn’t believe the destruction that Gunther left behind in his wake.
Danny felt assured that Gunther could save him. He watched in fascination as Gunther made his way to him slowly but assuredly. When he finally arrived, Danny jumped up on his back and held on as Gunther moved on toward a far wall. “Hold on tight Danny. This will be rough.”
Danny tightened his grip and held on tight as Gunther plowed through the metal shroud being used as a wall. They were outside and the sun was shining, Danny almost took a deep breath and relaxed till he saw more of the monsters were coming down the alley way at them. “How much more power do you have Gunther?”
“Down to thirty percent, Danny.” Gunther replied. Then he put on a small burst of speed and charged into the maelstrom.
Danny woke in his chair looking around startled, and not sure where he was. “I’m starting to hate these dreams.”
He rolled back to his coffee machine and drained the rest of the pot, quickly starting a fresh one. “I’m going to need the caffeine if I want to get this thing done and get out of here.”
