Luckily, the man remained in the same place. Rachel took a deep breath and approached him.
“Good Morning. There is an evacuation order due to radioac- tive vapors in this perimeter.”
“I intended to go, but my car broke down, and I found this.
Although apparently is dead too,” said the man without paying much attention to the uniformed.
“I go to a shelter without contamination. If you want to live, you’d better come with me.”
“Seems like a good idea. Here the smell of wet body makes me sick. I’ll get some stuff out of my car and I’m with you.”
Rachel turned in a hurry to seek a mask anointed scopolamine and antidepressants, but his surprise was huge when he saw the man who came with his nose and mouth covered. That was not all. The guy was wearing trousers and military boots. The outfit was completed by a white shirt that both washes, it seemed that would break easier than rotten cloth mosquito net. A silver chain around his neck and ended in a pair of plates with something recorded. And to complete, he wore that low hair cut well, like a brush. In his hand he was carrying a small suitcase. Surely it was other tricks used by the military for survival.
It was late as an excuse to tell the woman in the supermarket. The guy had already climbed into the car, whistling a tune that came with pats on the base of the door. Rachel also rose and set in motion. It was believed lost. He just said a true soldier who, because of radioactive vapors to evacuate the perimeter. Surely it was a well-trained military, and things went wrong when the man was carrying his own first aid kit. Not thinking about anything other than look for ways to make that mask is removed to give the baptized by chemicals, but how? If even the design was different.
“By the way, my name is Larry,” he said, extending his hand.
“I’m sorry, but since the epidemic, no greeting with physical contact,” she replied without taking his eyes off the road.
The man puffed out his lower lip while shook his head to one side accepting the logic of the frigid answer.
“Who do you work for? I mean, if you can tell,” jabbed ironic.
“I’m an army doctor. With this virus, we become part of a
specialized search and rescue in disaster areas affected by tech-
nological equipment. We received direct orders from the White House. And you?”
The man turned his face to show a huge line that divided his skull.
“You see this scar?”
Rachel analyzed from the medical point of view and realized it
was something serious.
“All right. He worked for the police, and in a confrontation with a subject in a bar, broke his liver with my fists. I was drunk. The man died and went to jail. I thought I would spend the rest of my life there, until it reached the undead and, in a mutiny, es- caped hopefully between bullets and zombies. A few days later, I showed the army, but my background, I was assigned to a fire sta- tion. During a fire, I walked into a building that was more flames concrete and out, I dropped an iron beam in the head. One of my companions rescued me. I knew that when I left the hospital, I went to the fire station, and my locker was a note and these silver plates with your name. There was no one left.
“How long have you been hospitalized?”
“I do not know exactly. I remember waking, and the hospital had no one, that is, no one alive. The silence made me get up with difficulty that bed. I took the needle out of my hand, and excru- ciating pain almost left me lying on the floor. I washed my face in the bathroom, taking care not to wet bandages. In the corridors there was a lot of blood, and in one of the cubicles, I saw three of those damned eating an inmate. Noticing my presence, they returned with their mouths and hands red inked. I remember it well; they lifted his nose to sniff several times from a distance. Then I realized that my only weapons were my feet and my sur- vival instinct.”
Larry went on to tell how he escaped the hospital and other exploits, but thought the voice of Rachel blocked the words of his companion simply because she needed ideas. In front of his house, he stopped abruptly and pointed.
“There! I saw a person in that house!”
“Are you sure? Was it one person or one of those sick things?” “I’m convinced that this is a person. Stay here. I’ll look.” “Nothing of that. I’ll walk.”
It happened exactly what I wanted. That was his house, knew every corner like the lines of your hand. Would all benefit the world over soldier fists of steel, except for one very important detail: in some places, especially in the room, had pictures of her with Donovan and Samantha.
As they entered, he said separating was the best idea. Rachel went to the kitchen and grabbed a sharp knife good tip. As a precaution, he kept the rest in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, Larry could not help looking a family photograph in one of the halls of the house. He took down from the wall and recognized Rachel. “What are you up, son of a bitch?”
From that moment, both acted quietly. The house was huge, but not infinite. The minutes were eternal manhunt. This time there was no possibility of a plan B. The ground rules were simple: either catch or catch you. And in one corner of the house, where light played a trick and you put your shadow in front, Ra- chel crouched down and waited for the right moment to stab the knife into his leg.
Man lassoed a shout, with swollen neck veins blasphemies. Rachel escaped like a gazelle, applauding inside. Having risen to stab Larry above, the man might have reacted with good reflexes, and the defense had turned into attack. The pain became tena- cious. Larry looked everywhere while breaking his white shirt with hands and teeth. When he was ready, the knife was pulled and tied strips of cloth to cover the wound.
Samantha got up from the floor of that damn basement lit by the smell of blood. With the compass of his nose, he went to the first, where the shelves with were tools Donovan. He seemed possessed. He tore the walls with nails and twisted his neck to everywhere to locate once and for all where the smell was coming.
Finally, he stumbled over the main staircase and leaning hands and legs, crawled to reach the top. Unable to go further, he began ban- ging that shook the planks of the door. Rachel heard the blows and thought, “This cannot be”. He recalled that the key to that input hung aside to eye level. If that man discovered Samantha, her daughter would be facing a madman who kills people with punches to the liver. And yes, Samantha was a zombie.
Without losing the minimum time, he ran to the laboratory and prepared a potent sedative deposited in a syringe. Even knowing that Larry was hurt, he had to lose. So, he went to the basement for the same place as her husband had escaped Samantha returned the day of death. The decomposed body of the motorcyclist turned his stomach. With the flashlight turned on in your phone, she avoided looking down. What worried him most was not his house were becoming a graveyard, but his daughter’s reaction when he realized that someone else was down there. Suddenly the blows ceased. Rachel picked up the phone and discovered the pale face of the girl. Then he feared the worst. Samantha was in your search, and lack of coordination, lost their steps and fell down the stairs like a plastic doll. Mother, moved by instinct, came forward to help her, but Sami threw a blow happened to millimeters of skin. A sip of bitter saliva slid down her throat just imagine that it had been a scratch, and another, as bitter as before, when he saw the shadow of Larry under the crack in the door. Again, the girl watched anxiously and hurried up. Samantha stood and fo- llowed her arms forward. Rachel was goosebumps when he saw her crawling down the steps like a demon. Long hair fell against her eyes and her throat escaped a bloodcurdling growl, similar to a cat when he loses patience. On the other hand, the shadow moved away. Samantha was one step away from his mother and raised his arm trying to reach. Then their eyes connected. Rachel took her hand and helped her to her feet. It was a unique mo- ment. She knew her daughter could not decipher that pure smile, but was happy to have her so close, and above all, alive. But we had to finish the job, so he kicked a couple of times hard, and Larry retur
ned to stand behind the door. Rachel lifted the syringe
up to the temple and, with the other hand, Samantha squeezed against the wall. He heard the sound of the key in the lock and rummaging through his heart derailed fear. On the one hand, he had a mad rage loaded, sure carried the same knife that had dug in the leg, and on the other, his starving daughter able to hit a bite in hand, enough to contaminate it with viruses Z... Finally, the door opened and Rachel jabbed the needle into the other leg. This time, Larry grabbed the strength of a titan and threw her down the stairs. In the fall, Rachel hit her head and was senseless. The man rubbed his prick area, wondering what the hell had injected the insane, when suddenly, he looked up and saw in front of him, his hair forward like a waterfall. The first converted this world. The girl’s hair pulled back to leave only discovered the nose and mouth, and swallow saliva smelling blood snapped in his empty stomach. Larry shook his fear, and his legs failed while being on his knees. You could not move, but his eyes were open,
They had spent at least two hours. Rachel opened her eyes and took a hand to the head. He looked up and saw the stairs lit halfway. Beside him was his daughter, soaked in blood, feeding the body of Larry. It turned to palpate the area of the head where it was hit. He did not want to imagine what would have happened if in the fall, she had bled too. Maybe your daughter tries of both bodies, and that would mean the end. Anyway, things had reached the limit. Each time, the situation became worse and, in the last attempt, you can say that luck played for Rachel. So, he made a decision. A painful decision but the right one given recent event. She sat watching her daughter enjoying his presence, his close- ness, seeing how pieces of meat into his mouth wore,
When Samantha was satisfied, I stood staring at nowhere not even that eluded him otherworldly hum emitted by zombies be- cause of the suppression of speech. Rachel avoided sudden mo- vements. Was not afraid, neither she nor the street, I only knew
that her daughter would do whatever was necessary.
He took her hand and gently helped her up the stairs. He took her dress with breath from the grave. He opened the faucet of the shower and waited for the water were warm. Rachel introduced a leg in the bathtub, and Samantha gave another step by herself.
“All right, love, fine, I know that you will achieve it,” said
smiling.
The clock not to hurt her and washed her hair delicately re- moved. Even treating her like a princess, Rachel was left black tufts between the toes. Water escaping down the drain was a deep red, as if they maul to an animal in the tub. The girl felt no pain, but her mother bit her lips to see how the water penetrated the flesh cracked.
A while later, he wrapped the body in a towel and carried her to her room. He waited to see if Sami reacted by some memory of her room, but she was barely moving. Rachel hit the hair dryer and noticed that the sound put restive. I turn it off. He dressed in light clothing as she hummed a song. I was ready. Not see her again until she found a way to cure her because of that she was sure. As a precaution, he put the towel over his left shoulder and gave him a long embrace. He felt the weight of her small chin and waited for him to answer the embrace, but Sami arms left hanging.
At ten past ten p.m., the body of Samantha Hayes O’Connor went on to condition the cryogenic chamber Iceberg number one. Rachel scheduled from the mother computer amnion the frozen state of his daughter for a period of twelve months. If he could not find a way to save her from this nightmare that year, he would quit.
Chapter 8. Survivor nightmare.
Frank’s phone rang nearly midnight. The display will read private number, and that meant giving an explanation to the president.
“Will you can say what the hell happened in that warehouse, and why a doctor was killed?”
“Things got out of hand, sir”.
“If you work directly under me it is because I trust you and I pay for things are in place. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“Listen to me, Frank, we cannot afford to lose even half a human life. You of all people should appreciate the act of living,” The President paused. “How long have we met?”
“Do not do this to me, sir,” with sad eyes.
“I’m not asking where and how we met; I wonder how long.”
Frank strong jaws clenched his boomerang and remembered that tragic scene where her parents died from his eyes as a child.
“From many years... sir.”
“All right. In all these years, I never felt cheated and he wanted not to see that video. If one of your men will fail you, I will also be failing me.
“Neglect, it will not happen again. In addition, the damn woke up after uploading video of Louis.”
“I hope that doctor’s life has not been lost in vain... Tell me you have something.”
“Still nothing. But I was investigating the record of Dr. Paul Miller, director of Iceberg.”
“I know exactly who he is. Will withdraw the funds after the incident at the Genetics Center,” said the president. “Recalling the patient’s body broke like a porcelain vase.”
“What incident?”
“It’s not important. But remember that when Atlanta had out- breaks of the virus, in New York was talk of an epidemic.”
“I know, but the subject is reputed to want to buy the world. If you withdrew the budget, maybe he thought that the solution was to create a virus then sell the cure.”
“That makes no sense. In addition, his right arm is Dr. Rachel Hayes. That woman saved us from HIV. You’re looking in the wrong place.”
“But, sir, maybe they...”
“Do I repeat. Take your eyes and concentrate on Iceberg look elsewhere, or you may want to look for dogs.”
“Sorry?” He asked confused.
“What you heard. People who were turned into undead left their homeless pets. Dogs who have taken to the streets in droves have joined and are attacking people and other animals. It is feared that they can start attacking zombies. Imagine what will happen if they also have dogs with rabies and carry the virus.”
“Is there evidence of that?” Frank asked alarmed.
“Zombies dogs. No. But they have attacked humans do. They are blind with hunger. We have people in charge in the matter. For the moment, find a safe place for you and your men. In a few days, you will return to the White House. We’ll be in touch. Good luck”.
Frank gathered his men and put them on top of taking care not only of the undead, but any animal in the street. He did not understand what exactly was the message to save themselves. At this point, ordering a massive attack was a suicide. The closest thing to a large-scale offensive was that crazy idea of spraying salt water to walking corpses. The government used a group of scien- tists to calm the national panic, ensuring that the salt weakened to the point that they could not lift. The fire department in charge of sprinkling water salinized the crowd of zombies while, from the air, helicopters discharged water tanks mixed with sodium chloride, causing fine rain in places where it had detected a major focus of creatures converted.
The truth is that it was a plan to gain time. And the conse- quences were worse because the international press lashed out strongly, declaring the inability of the US government against an epidemic that threatened not only across borders but to other re- gions of the world. The president was left with no other solution than to face and accept that the zombie plague was any threat ever known torrential phenomenon worse. He also claimed that the problem had been born at home and would work from home. During that same speech, he unveiled the gun -Icy Breath-. So far, it proved most effective if the idea was to neutralize the zombies with their rotten blood in their bodies. The design of the weapon was similar to a shotgun throws darts, only the content of the projectile was a load of molecular nitrogen in liquid state. The downside of the new IB-247, as it was also known, is it needed at least three shots per zombie, and statistics showed that every day, the number of converted people exceeded trained assets to shoot darts freez
ing. After another failure, the government declared a nation in mourning against the threat virus known as Z.
The sun had just crossed the zenith when they found a man, somewhat higher, dragging a shopping cart. The survivor looked like a vagabond, although, indeed, personal hygiene was not the most prominent factor against a zombie apocalypse.
“Where are you going?”
“Where you going?” He replied the old man.
“We’ll go to for food, water and, hopefully, a couple of bottles
of Jack Daniel’s.”
“If still in a straight line, they will not find anything like that. I come down that street since yesterday and the most I’ve gotten is a couple of servings.”
Frank gave her a bottle of water. The old man licked his lips dried.
“How long you have on the street? He asked the black man.
“That did not fool my appearance. Before the chaos, he had a life. And you, what will? They do not seem around here”.
“Most we are in the north. By the way, my friend, have you not seen dogs in the area?”
“The only animals I’ve seen are men Z,” he said looking for fine replied shadow of the truck.
The Bullet That Killed The World Page 10
