by Giacomi, A.
“Let’s go.” I signal to Vincent.
We walk through the bloodied carcasses and into the next sector of the facility.
After leaving that room I begin to panic.
“What’s wrong?” Vincent asks noticing my distress.
“Nothing…it’s just…I don’t want to become those things…I know it’s inevitable and there is no way out of your own skin…but I just wish I didn’t have to share their fate.”
“Do you want me to shoot you when you fully turn?” Vincent asks point blank.
His question shocks me, but my reply shocks me even further.
I simply say, “Yes.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
DR. AUGUST
“We need to discuss what we stumbled upon earlier,” I say cryptically to Agent Murray as we continue to hunt down Eve and Vincent. I didn’t want the other agents knowing what we knew; even Mina had understood the importance of this secret.
“We will discuss it once we locate Eve, I believe this is something she would want to be informed about?” Agent Murray asks rhetorically.
“Yes, I believe she’d very much like to know.” I nod.
Our conversation is disrupted by the agents ahead of us.
“Special Agent Murray, we’re picking up some activity in sector five just ahead of us. I think you should ready your weapons just to be on the safe side. I can’t be sure if it’s human or not.”
The agents seemed abnormally undisturbed by the entire situation. How did they keep their composure? Where was their panic? I suppose they had been trained not to fear, that it only made them slower, weaker, less effective.
Mina takes out two guns and hands me one.
“Have you ever used one of these Dr. August?” she asks smirking a little.
“Not willingly, but if I must I must…staying alive seems pivotal at the moment. We have much at stake.”
With our guns at the ready, we enter sector five. The blood smeared walls are an indicator that what we might encounter isn’t exactly human, but far more dangerous. The agent’s eyes widen, but their stride through the red halls does not slow. Every corner is checked and secured as we move further down the hall.
Just past sector five is a room that I had never been granted access to. The security station lay a few steps ahead of us. The door is slightly ajar, with signs of bloodied hands wrenching it open. As we approach the doors a sound is heard above. The two agents in front of Agent Murray and myself point their guns at the ceiling and wait. Silence pours through the halls as we control our breathing and wait for whatever came next.
A few scattering sounds above come next. It sounded as though a large rat were climbing around in the vents above. Agent Murray pulls me close to her, shielding me from whatever she feared might appear. I suppose she found me to be an asset worth protecting.
The sounds above grow louder and soon the ceiling seems to be shaking. Parts of the ceiling begin to crumble and dust falls into our eyes. I try to wipe the dust away, it was making my eyes water and my vision blurred. I try to aim the gun at the ceiling through streams of cleansing tears. More loud noises follow as something begins to beat the inside ceiling with such force that markings now appeared in many places. It would look as though someone or something was trying to punch its way out of the ceiling.
“Zombies…” I say in a terrified whisper.
Mina holds me closer. “How can you be so sure, Doctor?” she says in an equally as silent voice.
“Because we’re being hunted, Mina, they smell us down here. You can see their desperation with every dent they make. They want us.”
Her eyes widen and she calls to her men. “Shoot! Start shooting!”
They do not hesitate and Mina joins in. As they blast holes into the ceiling the sounds above grow angrier. When a bullet made contact a monster would groan and blood would appear, dripping out of one of the fresh bullet holes. But how could they even know if they had hit the head or not?
“Mina, we need to move. It sounds like there are too many of them,” I shout over the gunfire.
She nods. “Men we need to get Dr. Augustus to safety. Let’s get him to the security room. We’ll strategize from there.”
We are only a few feet away from the doors when a crashing sound fills the hall. As Mina and I turn to look, we find the other two agents face to face with a rather large zombie male. If he had been a wrestler in his previous life, one would have believed it. The zombie snarls at them, blood and saliva frothing from his mouth. His skin peeled in certain places, which was normal for a zombie, but what made him the most terrifying was his eyes. They burned red, just like Eve’s, but his eyes would always be fixed on you. He had no eyelids; they had been torn away by whatever had feasted on him previously. Clearly, some zombies had very different tastes. I distinctly remember Eve saying that the face was perhaps the most delicious, not a lot of meat there, but what was there, was irresistible.
Mina and I watch as the two agents ahead of us fire at the zombie. They aim for the head and although their aim is stellar, the zombie ducks the bullets or provides another body part for the bullet to hit. An arm, an ear, a shoulder, these parts wouldn’t matter. It was the head that had to be protected. The agents continue to fire, and back up with every shot. The zombie continues its pursuit of them, and when he grows tired of the game, he charges at one of the men, tearing flesh from his cheek. The strings of cheek meat hang from the zombie’s mouth and pull from the agent’s face. He attempts to scream, but blood begins to flood his throat leaving him with no final remarks. The unafraid agents wore new faces now, especially the one still standing, he looked positively ill, but he did not flee. Instead, he shoots the large zombie in the head, also blowing out the other agent’s brains. It was the right thing to do; you would want your highly respected college becoming one of those monsters now did you?
The agent smirks with some satisfaction, but it is short lived, another zombie appears out of the darkness and pounces on him. Tearing into his throat and dragging him off into the darkness before Mina could get a shot in.
“We need to go!” Mina shouts.
I race as fast as my tired old legs will go toward the security room. I hear sounds behind me, but I dare not look. Something’s breath was tickling my neck; they were close, close enough to end me. A bright spark and a bang fill the hall. Something behind me clunks to the ground.
“Thanks, Mina!” I shout toward her as she waits in the doorway to the security room for me.
“No problem, Doctor! Just hurry please!” she screams as she continues to hold her gun out ready to shoot the next thing that decides to breathe down my neck.
Finally, I reach the door and slide through the small crack left open. Mina slams the door behind us and inputs a code into the door, locking it firmly once more. I’m panting and unable to say anything for a few moments, but that doesn’t stop me from having a look around.
The room is full of television screens. They have a large screen at the front of the room, a sort of master screen. Then there are a couple dozen desks with monitors and other screens at each of them. A few of the desks had surveillance of Ottawa. It didn’t seem like much was happening there, in fact, it all seemed quite normal. Other desks were showing zombies walking along major highways, inhabiting cities, and one particular screen that caught my eye showed a zombie eating a small child still holding their stuffed monkey toy. The sight was too much to bear and I shoot the screen in frustration and anger.
“Hey! What the hell Dr. August? You can’t just go around wasting ammo! Besides these screens have information. You may not like what you’re about to see, but you’re going to need to get over it. There isn’t much pretty left out there. Better that you understood that now.”
I huff away trying not to show her my distaste for her opinion of me. I wasn’t stupid; I simply couldn’t handle it all. I
thought about my wife for a moment, wondering if she was even still alive. That turned out to be a bad idea because tears began to form and we didn’t have time for emotions right now. We had a job to do, an entire world to save, and here I was worrying about one person when there were so many other lives at stake. Except that she wasn’t just one person, she was my person, and I might never see her again.
Brushing the thought of her aside, I continue to check monitors, but none of them were viewing the inside of the facility. We would need to access interior cameras in order to find Eve and Vincent.
“Mina, how do we reprogram the cameras? Please tell me you know how to do that that they taught you that in training perhaps? We need eyes on the inside,” I beg.
Mina puts her fingers through her short hair smoothing it back. “Piece of cake, Doctor. Just give me a moment and we’ll have eyes everywhere.”
As she gets to work at one of the computer desks I find a place to sit and rest momentarily. I had a feeling I would be running again soon, and if that were the case I would need to sit whenever I had the opportunity.
Moments become minutes, and my patience withdraws itself. “Mina, we need to get moving on this! I fear we’re losing them!”
“Hold your horses.” She snorts back. “I got it.”
The screens flicker and then begin to change. Bingo! We have eyes on every section of the facility including the room we currently stand in. Mina waves her arms as we watch the screen where both of us appear. “This is us and this is where my other men should be. She taps the screen, but there is nothing to view. The halls are empty and no voices can be heard.
“That’s odd. Where are they?” Panic rises in her voice.
As we watch the screens closely a limb falls into view. It was dangling from the ceiling of sector ten.
Mina slams her fist into the desk. “Those bastards!”
The rage in her eyes is understandable, her men had been slaughtered. No one had told her that there would be zombies on the inside. Agent Williams had left that little tidbit a secret.
As Special Agent Murray continues to mourn her crew I view the images on the large screen at the front of the room. The images shuffle, and different locations are visible every five seconds. There is one image that catches my eye, but is gone before I can give it a second glance.
“Mina, I think I saw something just now. I need you to go back to surveillance on the outside of the facility. I’m not sure what I saw, but there was definitely movement.”
Agent Murray nods. “Okay coming right up.”
She types frantically at one of the computers and is able to bring up larger images at the front of the room. The outside seems peaceful, but then there are voices. A conversation one could faintly hear in the background.
“Is there any way we could cut to another feed? This one doesn’t quite reach far out enough to see who we’re dealing with.” I nervously bite my nails praying that it wasn’t Agent Williams returning.
Agent Murray fiddles with the keyboard further until she discovers a way to view further out, and there amongst the quiet trees are the two people I needed to speak to the most. How had they managed to escape the facility? How had they managed to break out of their frozen state?
“Can we talk to them?” I ask Mina desperately.
“We can try,” she mutters looking rather unsure.
Soon enough she hands me a small microphone. “Here, speak into this, let’s see if they can hear us.”
I clear my throat nervously. I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I would get from Vincent, so I decide to start with Eve. “Eve?” I say quietly at first, but when they don’t turn around, I say it much louder, causing both of them to glance around nervously into the trees.
“Who’s there?” Eve shouts out looking positively dangerous.
“It’s me, Dr. August,” I say delicately.
She’s about to reply, but Vincent grabs her wrist. “No Eve, it’s a trap, we need to get out of here now. If they have him, they’ll use him against us and we’ll never be able to get to Cam in time.”
She nods toward Vincent and mouths a silent apology, moving her gaze to the ground.
They begin to walk away.
“No, no, no,” I say to Mina, “we have to get them to turn back.”
I take the microphone once more, “Eve stop!” I shout. “I have something I need to tell you! It’s extremely important, and perhaps would be easier to show rather than tell. Please come back! I need you to turn back!” I plead.
Eve looks torn for a moment, but one more look at Vincent and her decision is made.
“I’m sorry, Doc. we have to go! Cam needs us, and the more time I waste the smaller the chance gets of me finding him alive. Vincent has agreed to help, so know that I’m in good hands.” And with that Vincent and Eve sprint off out of sight and mic range.
I am left crying out, “Wait, stop!” but there is no use. They are gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AGENT WILLIAMS/ THE DARK KING
There is a buzzing felt behind my eyes, it’s both painful and agitating. Electric pulses control and distort my vision. This was more than just the virus lurking in my veins something was taking over and I feared it like I feared hell.
My hands tremble as I go to grab my gun. Cam burns holes into me with his eyes as I go to sit in front of him in the van. Impulse tells me to open the gun and remove all the bullets but one. This could be a fun game. The bullets trickle out of my hand onto the floor, creating a beautiful chime-like sound; I close my eyes and absorb the violent beauty of it all.
Pointing the gun at Cam proves difficult; my hands shake so violently that I can barely keep the gun pointed straight. It didn’t stop me from trying.
“Let’s play a game, Cam. I’m bored, aren’t you? It’s a bit of a drive until we reach the airport, so let’s kill some time.”
Cam tilts his head in a pug-like fashion. “The airport? Why are we going there? You want to take me on a little romantic getaway before stealing my heart away?”
He chuckles to himself. It seems that Cam was losing his mind just as much as I was.
I laugh along falsely and then slam the butt of my gun across his face, leaving a nice impression in his cheek and a loose tooth spit out onto the floor.
Cam hunches over as he continues to spit blood out of his mouth. He’s trying to regain his composure, but the pain was clearly registering.
“Let’s play twenty questions,” I say enthusiastically without waiting for a reply.
“Question number one…who do you hate most in the entire world.”
“Easy question,” he spits out. “You, and only you, don’t you feel special?”
I nod smiling under the surgical mask that covers my disfigurement.
“I love that the feeling is amicable, Cam…next question…if you could bring anyone back from the dead, who would you choose?”
This question silences him.
“Cam, you’ll have to tell me or I’ll have to shoot,” I say waving my gun in the air impatiently. “I really don’t want to shoot you, you’ll have a very uncomfortable flight.”
When he refuses to answer, I aim my gun at his arm and fire. Lucky for him, no bullet is released.
“Cam, you sure as shit have an abundance of luck on your side. How you’re ass has managed to stay alive all this time, I’ll never know. It’s not from your great fighting skills that’s for sure.”
Cam growls and mumbles under his breath.
“What was that, Cameron? Next question? Why of course, hmmm let’s see…If you had to choose between your life and Eve’s, who would you choose?”
Cam mumbles something incoherent so I ask again. “You or Eve?”
He looks up at me, his eyes practically piercing. “Shoot me,” he whispers.
“That choice s
eemed rather easy for you. Aren’t you still upset over her betrayal? She chose me you know. Had a baby with me and wanted to forget all about you, at least that’s what she told me. That and why would you save the life of someone you can’t save? She’s already gone. She’s dead. I suppose you can’t accept it, but look around you, Cam, this isn’t the same world it was nearly three years ago.”
“In this game of yours, am I allowed to ask some questions?” Cam inquires.
I ponder it for a moment. “Why the hell not, go ahead, Cam, what is your question?”
“Do you love Eve?”
The question was a simple one, but it still takes me a long time to respond.
“I, well, yes…I suppose I do…why?”
Cam shakes his head. “Well if that were true, why are you trying to destroy her?”
“I’m not trying to destroy her, Cameron! Don’t be absurd. I’m trying to save her from herself. She doesn’t understand that humans are poison to her now.”
He shakes his head once more. “I’m not sure she sees it that way, Williams. You’ve taken every single person she’s ever loved away from her. That destroys people, that’s a whole other poison, and none of the humans she’s ever known would ever do that to her. I truly believe if you kill me, she will hunt you down and tear you apart, limb from limb and scatter your parts where they can be tormented for as long as your second life lasts.”
I clap my hands, quite entertained by the imagery. “Don’t’ be a foolish boy. No one wins here but me.” My voice comes out drastically deeper. It frightens me to my core.
That was not my voice.
Cameron notices as well and has put a bit more distance between us.
“What was that?” he asks in a confused tone. “Trying out your new Batman voice?”
“Har, har, Cameron. I just needed to clear my throat…”
Before I can continue my explanation, my lips begin to move without my permission and the boomingly deep voice begins to speak words that don’t come from inside my head. There was another force living inside me and it was dominant.
