Unleashed: A Science Fiction Horror Adventure (NecroVerse Book 1)

by Aaron Bunce

  “I sent them out to lock down any further contamination,” Doctor Misra snapped back, but turned back to the tent as the nurse grew more frantic. “Pamela, for God’s sake, calm yourself. She is sick and weak…probably out of her mind with fever. You have been trained for this. Pacify her, and put her back into bed. And you…sedate her already!”

  “I’m trying doctor. I’ve already administered a full dose of series two. She should be out, but…”

  Jacoby could see it now. The other patients wore the strange devices on their upper arms, too.

  “You sent them all away? You should have kept one here…to guard your lab,” Manus shot back, his voice rising several octaves. He stomped his foot and started to pace.

  “I didn’t think I would need protection from sick people and my own staff,” Doctor Misra said with a scoff and stepped forward, carefully maintaining her distance from Lex.

  “Doctor, I can’t…get her off. She is so…strong. And there is something sharp…ow…she is…oh my god! She is stabbing me! It hurts! Please! Help me! It hurts so bad. Please!” Pamela yelled, her screams devolving into hysterical, breathless, and unintelligible pleas.

  “Stabbing? Pamela, she doesn’t even have a weapon. Now get her back in…” Doctor Misra started to say, but the nurse shrieked again and Jacoby watched the doctor stumble back, her confident smirk melting away.

  “Enough of this crap,” Lex snarled, and pushed through a nurse and leveled the stun baton at another lab assistant, angry sparks arcing off the tip. Jacoby wrenched his arms back and forth, his wrists sliding a bit against the nylon. They were loosening, but just a bit.

  “Officer, I ordered you to stand…” Manis yelled, but grunted, right before something heavy slapped the ground.

  Jacoby turned back to find the administrator lying on the ground, clutching his arm against his chest. Janice and the nurse thrashed inside the enclosure, feet and hands slapping against the thick plastic. Lex ripped the zipper open just as Jacoby wrenched his head to the side, desperately trying to pull the electrodes free.

  “She’s breaking containment. D-D-Doctor, what do we do?” a young man in a lab coat asked, just as Lex pulled the nurse out of the tent by the foot.

  “Separate them…and get her back into her enclosure. Restrain her to the bed! We’ll need to decontaminate the whole space! Administer series three! We have to hope she doesn’t code on an overdose,” the short doctor shouted, directing several other nurses in suits forward.

  Jacoby felt one of the electrodes pull tight, but he couldn’t move his head enough to break it free. He turned his head back, just as the nurses broke Janice’s hold on Pamela. Lex helped the two women and together they peeled the two apart.

  “What in the hell?” someone shouted. Pamela rolled onto her side. Blood trickled out of her white suit, leaking through punctures in her chest and stomach.

  “Uh, I want…everyone…out of…here. Full…quarantine. Seal the lab,” Doctor Misra stammered, her dark eyes locked on the dark fluid spattering the floor around the prone nurse. The two women wrestled Janice back to her enclosure.

  “Worthlesss s-s-shit!” she screamed suddenly, and wrenched around. The nurses flailed to maintain a hold, but Janice’s hospital gown tore down the middle, pulling free and sending her toppling naked to the ground.

  She scrabbled upright, her emaciated frame now fully visible in the harsh light. Janice stood still for a moment, panting and trembling visibly, her pallid, mottled flesh pulled tight over her boney frame.

  “Restrain her! Restrain her!” Doctor Misra yelled, falling back behind two men. Janice spun on the group, a thick rope of dark saliva slipping down her chin.

  “What is that sticking out of her chest?” the closest nurse screamed and jumped back.

  Jacoby fought against his restraints, against his panic, against the air around him as he gulped down a breath. And then he tried to scream as he saw it, too. Sharp protrusions broke through the skin around Janice’s rib cage, the horrible, blood-covered appendages moving and clawing at the air, before disappearing back inside. They looked like bone…but that wasn’t possible.

  Janice turned fully to him, her dark eyes wide and weeping. Her mouth opened and closed as she gagged and breathed, the noise ragged and wet. Something moved under her thin skin, as if her skeleton was made of roiling snakes.

  “Slacking…on the…job! But I f-f-found ya, Jack…Jack…J-a-c-k! Worthless!” Janice hissed, her head twitching violently as she formed the words. Then she leapt forward and crashed into the plastic tent surrounding his bed. She scrabbled at the plastic, ripping and digging with her fingernails and teeth.

  Jacoby twisted on the restraints, the nylon biting and tearing at his skin. The Palmer Module beeped loudly at him, his arm and temples burning angrily, but he wouldn’t…no couldn’t, let it stop him. A weight moved up his arm, but he refused to give in.

  A hole appeared in the thick plastic, Janice’s slime-covered hands cutting through and pealing it open. She tore her way through, pulling and wrenching. She bit the plastic, chewing it and tearing it wide.

  A shadow moved next to her, a loud snap and blue light flashing a heartbeat later. Janice shrieked and writhed, her weight tearing the outer layer of tent all the way to the ground.

  “Stay down!” Lex yelled. She lunged and struck again, the light flickering as the stun baton met flesh. Janice flopped ungainly to the ground, rolled, and sprang to her feet. She scuttled sideways, like some horrible, fleshy crab. Janice shrieked and went right at Lex, the stun baton catching her squarely in the chest.

  Jacoby fought the deadness in his limbs, the horrible weight settling onto his eyelids. Movement caught his eye. The other patients down the row. They were fighting, too, clawing their way out through their plastic enclosures. He couldn’t just drift off…he had to break free…had to…somehow. Or he would…die. They would all…die.

  Doctor Misra shouted orders, her voice broken and strained. Her people rushed between the beds in a flurry, white lab coats flapping, fumbling surgical trays, auto injectors, and restraints from carts.

  “Call the security checkpoint and tell them we need more officers down here!” Lex yelled, moving sideways to block Janice. “Get back!” she growled as the boney woman moved towards Jacoby’s bed again.

  “Jack…Jack…Jack!” Janice moaned, her neck popping loudly.

  “Who are you talking to? What does that mean…? I told you to get back!” Lex said, but jumped back, catching Janice in the right leg with the stun baton. The prong flashed, the air crackling with the snap, splitting the skin open on Janice’s leg. Something dark and fleshy rolled out.

  “I want this place back under control! Lock down the lab now!” Doctor Misra screamed, just as a patient tore through the outer shell of their tent. The man clawed his head through first, and then shoulders and chest, sliding through as if being birthed. He jumped forward and swept a man off his feet, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Two nurses rushed in, pulling him clear and trying to wrestle restraints over his hands.

  The stun baton cracked against Janice’s midsection, the resulting snap and crack of electricity louder than before. But she didn’t go down, nor did she seem to notice the pain.

  Lex staggered back as Janice pushed forward, somehow able to muscle the taller, more muscular woman against the wall. Lex drove an armored knee into the smaller woman’s midsection, lifting her clear off the ground. Janice gagged and screamed, but her body twisted around the strike, her spine bending grotesquely.

  Jacoby wrenched his right arm straight up, the nylon strap pulling tight and stretched it towards his left wrist. If he could…just…reach the strap on his left wrist. But it wasn’t enough…he couldn’t reach it.

  Janice kicked and clawed at Lex, knocking the stun baton to the ground. The smaller woman gagged and screamed, snapping her teeth, clawing and slowly crawling up Lex’s arms and snapping at the air.

  Jacoby wrenched on his straps again just as a shado
w fell over him. He turned to find Doctor Reeds slipping through the inner tent, his face a pale, sweaty mask of fear and confusion.

  “This is chaos. Chaos!” the doctor muttered, flinching as a patient tore free from another tent, his hospital gown tearing off in the process. Two nurses jumped on him immediately, the larger jabbing an auto injector violently into his back again and again.

  “There is something going on here that I don’t understand. P-P-Perhaps she knows…knows something at least. Whatever it is…it’s bad, very bad! I have a gut feeling that you are involved…somehow. B-B-But I don’t think you’re a bad person...don’t think you mean us harm. Please don’t prove me wrong. We just need to…get out of here,” Reeds reached forward and unstrapped Jacoby’s left arm, then stretched across his body to free his right.

  “I don’t want…anyone to get hurt, doc,” Jacoby breathed in response and half-rolled into a sitting position.

  His head swam, his arms like leaden weights hanging from his shoulders, but he was free. Jacoby reached up and groped for the wires hanging off of his head. The adhesive pads tore free, small clumps of brown hair coming with them. The straps fell away from his feet.

  Jacoby half rolled, half fell off the bed, the Palmer Module now beeping and vibrating violently against his arm. He pushed past Reeds and out of the tent, clawing and pulling on the infernal device, even as its needles stabbed into his arm, pumping more debilitating poison into his body.

  He staggered and fell to his knees, everything below his waist going numb. The Palmer Module started to beep more loudly, almost singing in a frantic cadence of beeps and chirps. Jacoby pulled and wrenched on it, but it was stuck fast, a dull wave of pain radiating up his bicep and into his shoulder.

  Lex and Janice tumbled away from the wall not far away, the smaller woman scrabbling violently and pulling her to her knees. She lashed out, the movement barely perceptible, and caught Lex on the side of the head. The blow sprawled the redhead sideways onto the ground.

  Janice shrieked and pounded on Lex, her body convulsing as more bones snapped and popped, the bloody spines erupting through the skin on her back, too.

  Help her! the voice rang out in his mind. It was weak, but there. This time there was no shock, no burning pain in his temples to drive it away.

  Jacoby wrenched on the Palmer Module again, and then slapped the small screen. It glowed brightly, a padlock icon flashing red in response.

  He stumbled forward, half crawling to get to Lex, but Janice looked up at him, screamed angrily, and grabbed her by the feet and starting to drag her away.

  “Janice, stop!” Jacoby screamed, his voice still weak. He managed two steps before he stumbled and fell. The Palmer beeped again, the flesh underneath burning and tingling. “Stop…you withered old…bitch,” he cursed, already out of breath. The device buzzed against his arm and beeped, as if laughing at him.

  Break it. Smash it. Tear it apart!

  He pounded a fist on the plastic housing, but it felt impossibly solid. “I can’t…I’m too weak.”

  You’ve always been afraid to be strong to stand up for yourself…to use violence…even when it was called for. I’ve been here whether you want to admit it or not. Stop lying to yourself. Crack your head against the wall again and let me do what needs to be done, or admit that I am real, and give me control!

  “Wait!” Jacoby growled, just as a ripple shook his right arm.

  He remembered the clinic then, Randle’s anger and his leaden fists smashing against his face. Then he remembered his head smashing against the wall, the sharp pain and dull fuzz that followed. A memory triggered from somewhere deep in his mind, so many years before. It was almost the same scenario, only it was his father standing over him, his fists cracking angrily into Jacoby’s head and face. He’d felt the pain then, too…the fuzz, and faintly, losing control. The voice…it had been there.

  “I remember you. I…remember. You are real. Help me!” he gasped, trying fruitlessly to tear the rest of the fog off that old memory. Something fought him, and the old recollection slipped back down below.

  Yes! I will help you, but know that before the end, you will make us whole, the voice rang in his mind, a wave of angry, tumultuous thoughts coursing in with it. The veins in his right arm distended grotesquely, his fingers curling and flexing like spider legs.

  His hand shook and the knuckles popped, as a gray pallor flooded down from his elbow. Without conscious action, his right fist swung down onto the Palmer Module. The plastic housing cracked. His hand reared back again, pain and blood mixing as his fist tore through the device with the second strike.

  “Janice! Stop!” he yelled, staggering to his feet and plodding forward. He didn’t know if she was Janice anymore, or if she knew her name, but he had to try.

  His right hand tightened on the damaged device, and finally, felt its parasitic hold break free. Electrodes, needles, and catheter lines tore out of his forearm as the Palmer Module fell away.

  Pure! We…must…be…pure! the voice seethed.

  Jacoby’s whole body shook, the veins in his left arm burning and throbbing in time with his racing heart. Clear fluid trickled out of the bloody holes left in the Palmer Module’s absence. It bubbled forth, running down his forearm and dripping off his fingers, blood mixing and swirling on his pale skin.

  Warmth blossomed in his toes, rushing up his legs and into his chest as the debilitating mixture of pharmacological poison was somehow expelled from his body. The horrible numbness and weight burned away, a hint of kinetic strength rushing in to take its place.

  Now stop her!

  Jacoby leapt forward, his legs no longer mush beneath him. He ducked low and scooped the fallen stun baton off the ground, and ran. Janice wrenched Lex along, sliding her across the floor like a hunter with their felled prey. She turned left and disappeared between two beds.

  Jacoby followed, his hospital gown flapping up around his waist, cold air tickling his privates. He planted and ducked left at the spot and almost tripped over a nurse as she crawled out from under a tent enclosure. She shrieked, flailed her arms, and attacked him.

  “Don’t touch me. No! I don’t want to be…don’t eat me!” she screamed, fighting as Jacoby wrenched her upright.

  “I’m not going to…eat you!” he yelled, before pushing her free. Jacoby ran forward, the chaos of the room crashing over him like a wave. He nearly tripped over Pamela, whose body shook and convulsed on the ground. Foamy spittle covered her nose and mouth.

  Janice was ahead and to the right, dragging Lex towards the far wall. A large service panel was missing, the remnant of a torn, white garment hanging in the opening.

  A group of nurses staggered by right in front of him, the three women struggling to control a large and very naked man.

  The man knocked the two nurses on either side of him to the ground and straightened. He wrenched the third woman off the ground in a bear hug and spun, swiping at one of the women.

  The man threw his arms wide and screeched loudly. The woman he’d been clutching to a moment before didn’t fall…he wasn’t holding her, nor was she holding onto him.

  The nurse twitched and her head lolled to the side. She grimaced and opened her eyes, her gaze locking right on Jacoby.

  “Ple.a..s…e,” she moaned, and wordlessly mouthed “help”.

  You can’t help her. She’s already dead, her brain just hasn’t realized it yet. You can help Lex…move!

  Jacoby brought the stun baton up and moved to strike, but thought better of it, and moved forward, grasping the woman’s outstretched arm. She wrenched free and clawed at him, the man swinging around immediately.

  “I can’t feel…my body. I’m sorry…I can’t…I don’t know what’s happening to me…oh god, help me!” the nurse wailed, her arms and legs flailing violently.

  The man screeched and swung around, but before Jacoby could bring the stun baton up to strike, he leapt straight up into the air. He caught a large pipe running along the ceiling, kic
ked his legs around a conduit running parallel, and scrabbled away.

  Before Jacoby could even follow, the man ripped a vent cover free. No, it was the nurse…somehow, the two people’s combined limbs moved together of the same accord. The cover fell away with a crash, and then moving like a horrible, man-sized spider, the man crawled inside the ventilation duct and disappeared.

  “Someone…get her off…me!” Lex screamed, spurring Jacoby forward.

  Janice had reached the service panel in the wall, but Lex was alert now and fighting, kicking and rolling, fighting violently to break free.

  “Jack…Jack…Jack,” Janice babbled loudly, clawing and wrenching Lex towards the dark hole in the wall. She tore one of Lex’s boots off, tossed it aside and clawed for another grasp, the dark fabric between the armored pads bunching up and tearing loudly.

  Lex rolled over, growling desperately, but suddenly jerked back towards the darkness, her hands sliding ineffectually against the smooth ground. Jacoby’s vision narrowed until the two fighting women were the only thing he could see. His heart raced, muscles coiling and extending, propelling him forward.

  His thumb brushed against a knob on the stun baton’s smooth handle. It pushed in and turned, the weapon vibrating more intensely with every click. Janice was only ten feet away now, half of her body in shadow, the sharp, boney protrusions jabbing and stabbing, the wretched woman’s chest suddenly splitting open.

  Lex’s legs buckled, finally losing her long-fought battle. Janice screeched in triumph and found new purchase, coiling to bring her into that horrible embrace. Jacoby was three paces away and launched his body into the air. He threw all of his weight forward, driving the baton into Janice’s chest. But he didn’t pull the trigger. The weight behind the strike pushed the weapon through the puffy flesh of what used to be her right breast and clear out through her back.

  Janice wailed and fell back into the dark service passage. Jacoby hooked Lex under the arms and wrenched her back, her feet kicking and sliding against the ground. She was barely free of the darkness when Janice erupted forth, her body opening from neck to navel, her bones curling and jutting like jagged teeth. Blood spattered the ground before her in an arc as ropey organs hung free.