The Outbreak

by Shetty, Krishan

  “He’s got a point,” Sean pointed out.

  “Are you serious right now?” Josh asked looking about desperately.

  “I’m afraid so. And you are coming with us,” Randy said placing a solid arm on Josh’s shoulder.

  “What?” Josh gasped, his eyes pleading for help.

  “You heard the man,” Sean said with reinforced conviction.

  Josh’s face turned pale.

  “You, my friend are the bait,” Greg said his gaze piercing his.

  Chapter 8

  “I am coming too,” Roland said trailing behind his son as he walked about the lab trying to escape his father. Roland caught his arm with an iron grip it nearly hurt. “I am coming. Whether you like it or not.” Randy struggled to free himself from the grip. Realizing he was causing his son discomfort he immediately released the grip. Randy’s muscles rejoiced as they gained freedom.

  “No you are not. We survived up until now without you. We don’t need you,” Randy said as distantly as possible.

  “If it weren’t for us, you’d be dead in that dark hallway,” Senior McReed argued. He took a deep breath as if to swallow up his discontent and said, “Look son, I know you are upset with me. But I cannot lose you. Do you understand?”

  Randy searched for signs of feigning emotions. But he wasn’t. Roland was truthful till the very last word. His affection for his son was genuine. But why now? He never bothered up until now. It melted a portion of the ice sheet that had formed around his heart.

  He nodded dropping his gaze.

  “Let Hastings come with you. Please. You’ll need all the help you can get.”

  “Okay, but just him.”

  Roland nodded. A satisfactory nod. He walked off to brief his junior without wasting a single breath.

  Greg and Sean walked up to Randy. “What’s the plan? How are we going to do this?” Sean asked placing his hands on his toned hips.

  “We’ll need something to bind the goner with,” Greg said.

  “Like a handcuff?” Randy asked.

  “Yes. A pair of handcuffs would be excellent,” Greg muttered.

  “Handcuffs? I’ve got a couple on me,” Hastings added joining in. “Plastic cuffs. Light and strong.”

  “Excellent. We’ll need something to help immobilize the goner while we tag it,” Randy pondered aloud.

  “How about cutting off the legs and hands? That way the suckers can’t move” Chester smirked.

  “That would also mean it would die, ese,” Hastings responded with enormous lacklustre.

  “What’s your problem homes? You wanna piece of me?” Chester answered his fuse lighting up like a Christmas tree.

  There was no denying that Chester was one tough son of a gun. But there’s just no way he’d stack up to a soldier in a fight especially Hastings, who probably wasn’t the friendliest of people.

  “Josh c’mere!” Randy called out.

  Josh involuntarily approached the swelling group with a disdainful expression.

  “Josh you are going to be the bait,” Randy said choosing not to sugar-coat his words.

  “W-What if I die?” Josh trembled.

  “You won’t. That’s what we are here for. To make sure you don’t die,” Randy reassured him.

  Gotta give it to Randy. He can be pretty blunt but he has his own way with words. Definitely no preacher but no slouch either.

  “So here’s the plan. We are going to use Josh as bait. The goner comes after him and we take down the bastard, tag it and bag it! Any questions?”

  “Yeah,” Josh said. “What if there’s more than one?”

  Randy lost the plot. Words ceased to string together to form a sentence in his mind.

  “We’ll take care of it. Sgt Major Hastings will be accompanying us so don’t worry,” Greg quickly intervened.

  “And how are you going to tag it exactly?”

  “Well don’t worry about that. Here, this should help,” Kaz interjected by handing over a familiar navy blue colour contraption to Greg.

  “A taser? From where did you get one?” Greg asked astonished.

  “A female colleague of ours carries it in her purse at all times. Since she won’t need it at the moment, I’m sure you’ll make the best use of it.”

  “You can count on it,” Randy reaffirmed.

  “What about us? What are we supposed to do?” Dana asked agitated.

  “Hold on,” Randy replied wagging his index finger.

  Dana threw her hands into the air in protest.

  “Right, so who’ll be going?” Mark asked rubbing his palms vigorously with anticipation.

  “Randy, me, Sgt Hastings and Josh,” Greg pointed out.

  “Sergeant Major,” Hastings corrected.

  “Josh? You sure? I mean Sean here is in excellent shape,” Mark tried to reason.

  “Josh is the perfect man for the job professor,” Greg smiled.

  Mark shrugged, “Alright then. Good luck.”

  Roland sighed aloud as he watched from afar.

  Hastings sat on an immaculate desk carefully inspecting his weapon. He cleaned every nook and cranny, should it jam on him. He didn’t want to be caught off guard. He’s what people would call a perfectionist. He double checked all his equipment, made sure they were in working order, checked his remaining ammunition and then ran the scenario in his mind over and over.

  “Seems like you are leaving nothing to chance Sergeant,” Greg said as he walked up to the young Sergeant Major.

  He peered at him under a raised brow. Acknowledging him he said, “Sergeant Major. Better safe than sorry, wouldn’t you say?”

  Greg nodded his head, “Absolutely. I wanted to thank you for tagging along with us.”

  Hastings stared at Greg for a moment. He noticed the sincerity in his eyes. “Y’know, you guys have some serious stones. I can’t imagine what you guys must’ve gone through in the past couple of days.”

  Greg let his words sink in. As hard and icy Hastings appeared on the outside, he wasn’t. He was quite mellow on the inside. At least that was what Greg deduced from their meagre conversation.

  Everyone went about doing their own thing. Randy loaded up his nail gun and inspected it, Josh paced up and down nervously chewing on his disproportional nails. Hastings was having a word with his colleagues.

  Roland noticed his son examining his nail gun. His gaze dropped to the ground and then proceeded towards him. “Randy that nail gun might not be enough to stop those things out there. Here, I want you to take this with you,” he said drawing his secondary weapon from it’s black housing strapped the Captain’s right thigh. Flipping it around, he held it out to Randy. He looked at the weapon for a second. “I think I’m good, thanks,” Randy said.

  “Take it,” Roland said. It sounded like a command. A stern father’s command to a disobedient son.

  Randy begrudgingly took the gun from his father much to his father’s relief.

  “I’m sure you remember how to use one. You would’ve made a fine soldier.”

  “Good thing I’m not,” Randy muttered under his breath.

  Roland pretended to not hear and turned away. He couldn’t really do anything about it. “Rebellious phase?” Hastings asked with a slanted mouth.

  “Mind your business soldier,” Roland said pulling rank.

  Hastings snorted and nodded.

  “You sure you don’t want me to come?” Sean asked hot on Greg’s heels.

  “I’m sure Sean. Josh is the perfect candidate,” Greg replied confidently.

  “I’m probably going to die. Just like you killed Kiara,” Josh blurted nervously.

  Greg clenched his fist. He wanted to beat Josh up but controlled his urge to turn Josh’s face into a swollen raisin. Shrugging it off, he went about the lab. He noticed the rows of genetically modified vegetables being grown. They had an uncharacteristic glow. Since they were genetically modified, it’s to be expected he thought. Somehow, something about the lab seemed strange. Like what was i
n B-1?

  The whitecoats weren’t particularly relishing their time in the lab either. They scuttled about carrying specimens, mixing gene pools, adding funny coloured liquids to miniscule samples in sparkly clean Petri dishes. You could almost smell the air of dissatisfaction and helplessness tingle the olfactory branches.

  Greg wondered if a cure was indeed possible. If it was, killing Kiara would prove to be a fatal mistake. But then again, it wouldn’t be the brightest idea to drag her around in her transformed state. It would only further endanger the lives of the others. Greg tightly bit his lip and heaved an exhausted breath. He felt his heart stretch thanks to the emotional tensile stress.

  A light rumble filtered through the ceilings and into the lab.

  “Thunder,” Greg muttered under his breath. “Let’s get going,” he said signalling the others.

  Hastings popped in a magazine and cocked his weapon. Randy cracked some knuckles and warmed up. Josh well, paced up and down more furiously.

  “Save your energy, you’ll need it,” Chester said patting his shoulder.

  Josh ignored his statement.

  The retrieval team moved towards the elevator. Roland’s gut lurched at the sight of letting his son go out there. His gazed remained fixed upon Randy. This made Randy a tad bit uncomfortable but he knew his father was concerned.

  “Good luck,” Mark said staunchly.

  The elevator dinged and parted ways to reveal a brightly lit confined space. They entered the lift and watched it close slowly until it was just them in the lift. The lift jerked and began crawling upwards at a relaxed pace. It was silent in the elevator. Only the whirring of the mechanical components working away. The lift jerked again as it came to a standstill. The doors opened preceded by a familiar ding.

  The lobby was empty. The furniture and everything else was unmoved. It was unnerving for some strange reason. They walked slowly; their senses began working overtime almost immediately. Reaching the glass door, they peered outside to survey the surroundings. Another rumble vibrated through the air. The grey clouds stood between the sun and them. It cast an enormous shadow dulling the senses as well.

  “Rain is on the cards,” Randy said.

  “It’s to our advantage,” Greg responded without blinking.

  Carefully, Randy opened the door making sure he was as silent as a cat. The door opened without as much as a creak and they moved outside one by one, with Hastings bringing up the rear. He promptly closed the door behind him. Cold wind laden with moisture tantalized their skin as a downpour looked imminent.

  “There are three gonerz, which one do we take?” Randy whispered.

  “Let’s take the middle one. Take out the other two,” came Greg’s firm response. “Josh you know what to do don’t you?”

  Josh gulped and shot Greg a nasty look. “This isn’t right.”

  A strip of lightning flashed in the grey sky bringing with it a ferocious growl. The brilliant white strip was bordered by a delicate purple hue. Droplets began to fall from the sky. First they were tiny and then they grew bigger and more intense. The lightning punctured a score of clouds, opening up the bags of water that now raced towards the earth. Rain began to fall with a mild pitter patter.

  “Josh! Go!” Greg hissed.

  Josh had grown to accept what might come and acquiesced to it.

  He reluctantly forged his way to the fiend at the centre, a couple of hundred metres, dead ahead of him as Randy and Hastings moved to his flanks to take out the unwanted ones. Under the cover of thunder they quietly dispatched the foes before them. Randy was at a safe distance before he deposited a nail in the goner. Hastings swiftly dispatched the goner without as much as batting an eyelid. The fiends silently dropped to the ground with a wet splosh. The goner in Josh’s path seemed to notice something amiss and was about to turn it’s focus towards it’s dead mates but not before it saw a meal heading it’s way. The rain was unrelenting now. It began to pour with a greater intensity. The raindrops were so many that visibility plummeted a great deal. This worried Greg. If he lost visual contact with them the situation would spiral out of control in no time. Advantage my ass he thought. He strained to see past the flurry of rain drops streaking down his face and crashing into the ground. Josh’s heart erratically pounded as the rain didn’t help in calming his nerve. He could only see the silhouette of the fiend he was to lure. Thunder ripped through the watery skies as the silhouette began to become larger. Josh froze as the sporadic flash of lightning bought an unnatural glow to the goner. It was closing in on him. That was the only possible explanation as to why it’s silhouette slowly swelled in size. It wasn’t fast, he could tell but it was terrifying nonetheless. He slowly backed up; he didn’t want to take any chances. Where are you guys? Josh bit his lip. Their visibilities of each other had reduced to only silhouettes. Randy strained to search for a human like figure while Hastings relied on his training and experience, keeping a cool head.

  Streaks of lightning bolts stretched across the sky painting the grey canvas with an eerie purple hue.

  The sound of the battering rain combined with the ferocious thunder and the howling wind dampened the chances of sound travelling freely through the air. Hastings switched on the flashlight on his rife; it did little to improve his impeded vision.

  Josh could barely make out the silhouette through the slew of raindrops thundering down. He kept backing up slowly.

  Greg watched as he lost visibility of his comrades. What the hell? Why is it raining so hard all of a sudden? He took a chance and yelled out, “Randy! Josh! Sergeant!” his gaze skipped across the three directions they headed into hoping one of them would hear him.

  Under the illumination of an ominous bolt of lightning he saw a silhouette dead ahead of him, in Josh’s direction. He couldn’t make out if it was looking at him or facing the other way.

  “Josh!!?” He yelled cupping his hands around his mouth.

  The light disappeared and the silhouette once again was curtained by the overcast skies and a sheet of rain.

  What the hell?

  Hastings began slowly backtracking to the building with his rifle partially raised. His finger gently tapped the trigger rhythmically without displacing it.

  The vigorous downpour turned into a raging tempest without warning. The sheet of rain blew horizontally bolstered by the incidental caterwauling of the wind.

  Randy shielded his eyes as droplets crashed into his eyes without relent. He looked about hoping to spot either of his comrades. Taking a deep breath, he collected himself and proceeded in the direction which he thought Josh would be. He knew Josh was here somewhere; he could only hope he wouldn’t bump into something less benign.

  The overcast skies were once again coruscated courtesy a bolt of lightning. It accented the silver glistening raindrops and also brought to the fore a silhouette. Randy’s feet iced over. “Josh!!??” asked a chary Randy. He held his nail gun up high before the light show ended bulwarking the silhouette behind a glass of rain. A cold shiver prickled his spine as the skies turned a grumpy grey.

  Greg stood fast at his position as he nervously gripped his weapon. It seemed ridding himself from the abyss was more difficult than he thought. His rational thoughts were interrupted by intermittent bursts of the scene where Kiara died and the ghastly crawler. It began to cloud his judgement as the rain and the gloomy weather clouded his vision. Fighting off the demons bought forth by the abyss he shouted at the top of his lungs, “JOSH! RANDY! HASTINGS!”

  Greg’s voice barely carried over to Hastings who was making his way back. His head spun in the direction of his voice. He quickened his steps back towards the voice. He knew he was heading in the right direction. The light from his rifle fell upon a face. It was Josh’s face. He was frozen. His lower lip trembled as his gaze remained fixed straight ahead. Hastings spun around swiftly in the direction Josh was staring.

  It was the silhouette. The one which was terrorizing Josh under the cover of the tempest. Hastings caug
ht a glimpse of it’s malevolent eyes. Its breath turned into mist in the cold rain. It’s eyes pierced through Hastings sending a wave of disquietude pulsing through his blood.

  “D-Dad,” Josh said choking.

  It let out a puffed mist and lunged forward. The silhouette dashed through the rain towards Josh. A brilliant flash in the sky lit up the vicinity for a split second, displaying the creature for a mere moment before it’s eyes took centre stage again. Hastings forcing his feet to defrost, swivelled his rifle to match the creature’s pace. It moved incredibly fast, so fast that Hastings nearly lost sight of it. Before he could yank the trigger and the creature could grasp Josh, Josh was sent flying sideways in Hastings’ direction and fell to the ground which had turned into a little quagmire. The creature immediately turned to face the fallen Josh.

  “Randy?” Hastings squinted past the raindrops.

  Randy without responding fired his nail gun at the creature. It’s silhouette backed into the rain and it’s eyes disappeared.

  “We’ve gotta go!” Randy yelled as loudly as possible.

  Randy buckled over to pick up a body from the ground. It was alive. It was struggling.

  “A goner?” Hastings asked puzzled.

  A sinister roar slashed through the rain. A surge of horror iced their movements.

  Fuck! It’s the same one from back at the mechanical lab. This is not good. Shit, shit, shit. Randy’s thoughts pounded against the front of his head it nearly hurt.

  Greg’s voice again drifted faintly towards them. Josh couldn’t stop his teeth from chattering in trepidation.

  “That’s Greg, let’s go!” Hastings said bringing his experience in.

  Randy fought off the coldness caressing his skin. Without uttering a word he proceeded to pick up what they had come for. It protested to Randy’s intention and tried to free itself from it’s captor. He was about to lift it before another roar shredded through the air and two eyes emerged from the darkness. It was clearly not something to be trifled with. It’s silhouette was inhumane. It’s limbs like the crawler’s, were uncharacteristically long and slender. But this was something even the crawler would pale in comparison to. It reeked of an aura that overwhelmed every sense in the human body. Randy’s hand trembled as he tried to fight off his fear. It was in vain, he was overwhelmed with fear.