Jane Zombie Chronicles (Book 6): Running Rampant

by Katz, Gayle

  “What are you thinking?”

  “As far as I know, only three people would have full access to the entire database, and two of them are dead. So, that just leaves Professor Ben Carter.”

  “Vulture, where’s the Professor? Do you have eyes on him?” Damar asks.

  “Yes, he’s easy to spot when you have sight into all of the video cameras around the compound. Get to one of the dummy computer terminals. I’ve unlocked them all so you shouldn’t have any trouble logging in and getting security camera access. From there, you should be able to see what you need to know. I can walk you through everything as long as I’m in your ear.”

  “Gotcha. I’m on my way. Thanks!”

  “Jane,” Damar says.

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful.”

  “I will,” I reply while eyeing the assault rifles lying next to one of his fallen soldiers. I carefully unhook the soldier’s fingers from the gun and use the strap to sling the gun over my back in order to keep my hands free.

  Running to the nearest computer terminal, I pass through a crowd of zombies. I slow down so I don’t accidentally bump into them. Keeping my distance from their gnarled faces and ear-piercing shrieks, they don’t stir. They don’t even acknowledge my presence. If what Brie said is true, I can walk right in front of them without worry of them trying to eat me. So far so good, except that as I check all the corners and keep a watchful eye on my surroundings, I see Brie, or what’s left of her. Her limbs were torn right off of her body, bone exposed and blood splatters all over the ground. There’s no need to worry about her reanimating. There’s not even much left of her.

  I spot a terminal in the wall. Geez. It’s looks like a damn ATM machine.

  “I’m here,” I say.

  “Good! Now type in the password: GAMEOVER”

  “Got it. What’s next?”

  “After the screen loads, click the security camera folder.”

  “Done. A whole bunch of videos just popped on filling up the screen. What is this? Like security cameras for the entire compound or something?”

  “You got it.”

  “Are these live feeds or previously recorded?”

  “As live as you can get. It looks like we have the Professor and female friend on their way to the roof.”

  “Female friend?” I mumble under my breath. I see the security camera the Vulture is talking about. They’re walking right through hallways and up stairwells filled with zombies. Somehow they’re evading the zombies, walking past them as if they’re not even there. Maybe Ben is using his zombie mind control or another cloaking device? “The roof? What’s on the roof?” I ask the Vulture.

  “A helipad.”

  “A helipad? Oh no. They’re trying to leave. I can’t let them go,” I say.

  Chapter 14

  ________________________________________

  I’ve seen enough. Rushing after them, I sprint down the same hallway as fast as I can to intercept them. In my head, all I can think about is that he has to pay for letting this zombie mess happen, and he can’t get away. He can’t! I have to stop him. I run up the stairs and burst through the roof safety door, a few yards away from the helipad. Not used to the sun, I have to shield my face. I’d like to appreciate the outside, but right now other priorities take center stage, like bringing the Professor to justice.

  I see a helicopter in the distance, not much larger than a dot in the sky. The Professor and a woman are watching it come closer.

  “Stop!” I shout, pointing the assault rifle at them. They both turn around, look at me, and then at each other. The first thing I notice is the woman. She looks somewhat familiar, but her face is distorted, almost like the features of two people are fighting, blurring into one. “Get your hands up! In the air! Now! You’re not going anywhere,” I shout some more. “You haven’t changed one bit, Professor or whoever you are. You thought you could fool me, but I knew I couldn’t trust you. I can’t let you go, Ben. I can’t. You have to pay for your crimes, for everything. You have to.”

  Ben raises his hands in the air, turns to the woman next to him, says something I can’t hear, and starts to walk toward me. The woman stays put.

  “Don’t move. Stay back. The authorities will be here soon.”

  “Jane, I’m as much a victim here as you are. Scrycor was behind everything. I was looking for a cure for cancer and we found it, but then it was overshadowed by this zombie sickness.”

  “I don’t care. You can blame whoever you want, but you could have backed out at any time. You didn’t. You chose to stay.”

  “If I had known what was to follow, I would have, but at the time, I didn’t think I had a choice.”

  “We always have choices.”

  “I know that now.”

  As he talks, I hear shrieking noises coming from behind me. I turn around and see a horde of unholy flesh eaters escaping from the roof door. At first, I flinch. Then relax, knowing they’re not coming for me. When they flood onto the roof, the Professor turns his attention from me to them. As they rush the platform, he somehow manages to hold them at bay just like he did when we first met.

  “Look at what you did! These corrupted things used to be people, and now they’re monsters. Does that even matter to you? You’ve ruined so many lives. You could have stopped your research at any time and alerted the authorities.”

  “The authorities? They would have laughed in my face. Zombies? No one believed in them! And as for Scrycor, they would have just approached someone else.”

  “You don’t know any of that for sure. You don’t.”

  “We can drone on about this forever and never come to a resolution. Why should I be punished when I’ve suffered just as much as anyone else? There are other people at fault, too. Why should they get off scott free just because they kept a low profile? I was dead. Long gone. I didn’t choose to come back. Other people made that decision for me. My life here is over. I have the face of a psycho. They won’t understand, but you do. I have to leave now.”

  “If you really meant what you said before about helping humanity heal, you’d stay and make sure people around the world get the cure. Right now, all I see is a coward skipping out on his responsibilities to save his own ass.”

  “I did help. I commissioned the creation of the cure, but I never promised I’d stick around. I can’t stay. I can’t. You know it, too. And I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry for everything. I never meant to hurt you or Jack or anyone else for that matter.” He starts pacing back and forth. “I had a cushy job at a prestigious university and that was flushed down the toilet when things got out of control. After a while, I didn’t know what I was doing. I was out of my mind. You lose yourself, you know? Forget who you are. Forget what’s important. Forget your humanity. Do you know what that’s like?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, I do. Why even ask? You know I do. I was infected once, turning into one of those monsters, and bit Jack. I didn’t mean to do it. It was one of the worst days of my life.”

  “So you know the struggle is real. I’m not making it up or exaggerating. It’s the monster inside.”

  “The monster inside?”

  “All of us have a monster on the inside. For most normal people, keeping the monster at bay, hidden from everyone around you is challenging, but not impossible. But sometimes, the monster escapes and we can’t contain it. The monster takes over. That’s what the virus does. We don’t look like them now, but what we did while we were consumed by the monster, it’s a part of us forever. It never goes away. Isn’t that punishment enough?” Ben turns around and looks at the helicopter approaching. Fixated on the Professor and the woman, I hadn’t realized the helicopter was so close. “That’s something we shouldn’t be held responsible for. It’s not our fault.”

  “If you didn’t have a hand in developing the virus in the first place, I might believe you, but you’re at fault here. So is Scrycor.”

  “I made mistakes,” he says, “and I’m willing to admit that, bu
t I didn’t do what the Professor did. I’m not him. I’m just his clone and I tried to help, for better or for worse.” Looking at the helicopter again, he continues talking. “Listen. We’ve got to go now.”

  “If you try to leave, I’ll just shoot you in the head, just like Jack did all those years ago.”

  “You have to do what you feel is right, but I’m not going with you. We’re leaving,” he says, walking away from me.

  “If you go, you can’t take her with you,” I shout, walking after him. “We can’t have another monster roaming around out there. We already have too many of them running rampant.”

  “She’s not a monster, Jane. Trust me. She’s not.”

  “Trust you?”

  “Yes. You have the cure now. It’s in the lab. Take it to the people.”

  “Wait! In the lab? How do we access it?”

  “The password is MINDOVERMATTER.”

  “And that will get us access?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wait!”

  “What?”

  ”Stop! You can’t leave until we verify it works.” I point my gun at Ben. “Vulture, did you get the password? It’s MINDOVERMATTER.” I wait a second for the Vulture to input the password. “Does it work? Are you able to hack the file and see the cure formulation?” I say into the headset microphone.

  “Give me a minute,” he replies.

  “We don’t have a minute. He’s going to leave.”

  “Got it! It worked!” he says into my ear.

  “It worked. Thank you.”

  “Sure, I said I wanted to turn the page and help fix the problem I-the Professor helped create. As for us, it’s time to fly into the sunset. We’re not going to hurt anyone anymore. You have my word.”

  As the helicopter lands on the roof, Ben starts to back away from me, preparing to escape. It’s then that I see Lance hop out of the front passenger side seat, duck down, walk around the helicopter, and open the door for them. Ben walks over to the woman, calls her “Brie,” and they hop into the helicopter together. Wait. If that’s the real Brie, who did I just fight downstairs? She doesn’t look like the second Brie from before, unless her genetic editing work got out of control. Gun in hand, all I can do is stare at them, and then I notice Lance smirking and waving at me as he hops back into the chopper.

  Watching them take off and get smaller in the distance, the zombies bust through their imaginary fence and swarm the entire roof. Some of them run to follow the helicopter and fall off the edge of the building. Others just roam around in circles. Some of them bump into me and keep going. One almost knocks me over. Despite all of this, I’m still undetectable to them.

  “Jane!”

  “Let the helicopter go.”

  “What? Let it go? Why? I thought you didn’t want him to get away.”

  “I didn’t, but that’s not the same Professor from before. He’s a different person now. No good can come from punishing him. Just let him go. Besides, we have the cure, and I don’t think they’ll be a problem anymore. Listen, everyone here is dead or undead and it’s time for me to go home. Can you meet me at the front of the compound? I need a ride to the airport.”

  “We’ll meet you there.”

  I weave in and out of the zombies swarming on the helipad. Exiting the roof, I run back down the stairs, and through the long corridor, hoping to make my way in between the zombie mess still raging in the hallways and out of the compound. With the rifle still strapped to my back and the headset around my neck, I come up to the main exit. I push against the door. It’s locked. Taking a few steps back, I grab the rifle from my back and aim at the door lock. I squeeze the trigger and suddenly light is shining through the small hole in the door. Walking forward, I push open the front doors of the facility. Finally making it outside, I stop for a moment and revel in the fresh air, raising my arms to embrace the sun and sky. “Hello, beautiful world. I’ve missed you.”

  Chapter 15

  ________________________________________

  “Jane, are you OK?”

  Distracted for a moment, I shake the freedom paralysis and get my head back in the game. “Yeah.”

  I see Damar hanging half out of the Jeep, waiting for me. He opens the back door and I climb into the backseat. He closes the door once I'm inside. After getting situated, I turn around and see myself in the front passenger seat. Even after seeing so many of my clones, it still freaks me out to see another one. Then I remember, this one escaped with Damar when I got shot and decided to stay behind.

  “This is odd.”

  “What? Oh, yeah. Right,” Damar agrees as he hits the gas and we zoom off, headed to the airport.

  I pick the headset up again.

  “Vulture, are you there?”

  “Yeah. I’m here. What’s up?”

  “You have that cure?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, there’s no sense in keeping it to yourself. Can you send it to the World Health Organization? Oh! If you could also send it off to a contact of mine in the U.S. Government. His name is Chris Ailis. If you could do that, I would be most appreciative,” I say, giving the Vulture Chris’s email address.

  “Sure thing, kiddo.”

  “Thanks for everything, man.”

  I take the headset off of my ears and stare at my clone sitting in the front seat of Damar’s Jeep.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Damar says, smiling.

  “Yeah? You do? I highly doubt that,” I say, winking back at him.

  “Forget about that for a minute. I have a couple people who want to talk to you.” My clone hands me a satellite phone and smiles.

  “Who wants to talk to me?”

  “Just take the phone.”

  “Thanks,” I say to my clone. Phone in hand, I greet the person on the other end. “Hello?”

  It’s Jack. I recognize his voice anywhere. “Jane! Is that really you?”

  “Yes! Jack! It’s me!”

  “I’ve missed you so much. I’m so happy you’re alive, baby.”

  “I’ve missed you, too. This feels like a dream.”

  “I know, baby. I know, but it’s not a dream. It’s time to come home now.”

  “I’m heading to the airport as we speak.”

  “Good. That’s good. Chris is here with me too.”

  “Chris! The cure is here in the research building, along with samples, equipment, and more. You have to come and get it. You’re also going to get an email from one of Damar’s sources on how to formulate the new cure.”

  “We’re already on it. Don’t worry about anything. Just come home in one piece, all right?”

  “Jack!”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m so tired. I’ve been through so much. If I don’t make it home…”

  “Don’t say that. You’ll make it.”

  “I hope so, but my luck hasn’t been so great lately, ya know? Who knows what gonna happen on the trip back. Anyway, I… uh… just want to say I love you now, just in case.”

  “You’re going to be fine, baby. Just fine. You’ve come so far. All you have to do is come a little further. Just come home, all right? Come home and we’ll take care of everything. Anything you need, you got it, but we do it together.”

  “And there are other things. Things I just learned…”

  “Whatever it is, as long as you’re alive, we’ll fix it together. Stop talking and get on that plane.”

  “Will do. I love you, Jack.”

  “I love you too, baby.”

  “I have to go now.”

  “All right. Just a few more hours and this nightmare of ours might finally be over.”

  “I can’t wait to see you.”

  I click the END button on the phone and our connection is gone. Wiping away the tears, I hand the phone back to my clone and close my eyes. I hope the cure works to end this zombie epidemic. I hope I get home in one piece. I hope to wrap my arms around Jack and never let him go.

  With everything behin
d me, I lean back on the seat and stare out of the side of the Jeep, wind whipping through my hair, thinking only about Jack and our future together.

  ***

  “Listen, we’re almost at the airport. Go to the ticketing counter, give them your name, show them your ID, and you’ll get your boarding pass.” Damar hands me my license and passport taken away from me when I first arrived.

  “Where did you get these?” I grab my documents from Damar’s hands.

  “The Vulture came across them and passed them along. I thought you might want them back.”

  “Yes, totally! I thought they were gone forever.”

  “Anyway, we also took care of booking everything for you. It’s the least we could do. You’ll be headed into JFK Airport. It’s the closest we could get you to home.”

  “Thank you, Damar. You’ve been a great friend.”

  “And as a great friend, I want you to get home without any additional challenges, so it’s probably best if you leave the rifle and headset in the car when you get out,” he smiles, and glances over at my clone.

  “Good thinking.”

  As Damar pulls up to the airport drop off point, he gets out of the vehicle, comes around to the backseat, and opens the door for me. For a moment, I’m in a daze. I can’t believe I’m finally going home. I step out of his Jeep and look around.

  “Safe travels, my friend,” Damar says, embracing me in a big bear hug.

  “I’m not sure I could have gotten through this without you,” I say.

  “Good thing you didn’t have to find out,” he says, smirking.

  “Oh! I almost forgot.” I reach into my pocket and pull out the device I acquired while in the compound to repel zombies. “Here.” I dangle it in front of Damar. “It might come in handy until all of the zombies are wiped out.”

  “Ah. Yes. You can never have too many of those things. Where did you get it?” he asks.