“This door isn’t going to open from this side…” Noah reported after examining the door we had sealed to get away from these very zombies the last time.
“Everyone, get back!” I shouted taking out my grenade launcher.
I loaded it as the others all took cover and aimed at the wall beside of the sealed electronic door and fired causing a fiery explosion that sent debris flying, it also made a huge hole in the wall that we could now use to get through; I went through first with my weapons ready and the others followed, we came through to see the doors that had been sealed before were now hanging wide open—there was blood everywhere and it looked like something had smashed through them with extreme brute force.
“You know—I’ll bet this is where that three-headed dog thing came out of.” Subotai stated in a technical tone of voice.
“What three-headed dog?” Kira asked looking around wide-eyed.
“Don’t worry—we killed the bastard the first time we came down here.” I answered as I gave her a reassuring glance.
“That’s good to hear—you said ‘three headed dog’ I didn’t know what to think.” Kira answered with a relieved chuckle.
“Should we use the elevators and head down to the morgue and then underground?” I asked looking over toward the elevator doors.
“I have a feeling that what we are looking for just might be down this way…” Noah answered stepping into the broken doorway.
“Honey—wait for us!” Christina cried rushing in after him.
Noah flipped on his flashlight and started ahead as we all followed, the interior of the hallway we were now going through was in shambles—parts of the walls were torn to pieces and the blood and gore was starting to get more and more intense; that’s when we came to a room that looked like it had once been a cryogenics cold storage of some kind. There were tubes and all sorts of research tools scattered around as well as several more bodies of what looked like the same kind of Bio-Trooper that I had found back in the Biohazard Room.
“Covenant One…just who were these guys and what were they doing down here?” I said out loud.
“Beats me…I never heard of Covenant One till now.” Noah answered as he glanced at the body of the Bio-Trooper I was referring to.
“This place is a mess!” James stated kicking a broken tube casing causing it to clatter against the wall loudly.
“Hold on a second…I just heard something!” I shouted slapping a new clip into my M16.
Everyone got silent and we all listened, sure enough—there the sound was again—it sounded like something walking around brushing against things towards the back of the room where there were bookshelves and tables blocking our view.
“Who’s there?” I shouted as I pointed my weapon toward the sounds.
No answer and the noise was getting closer and closer, by now everyone had they’re weapons aimed toward the sound and we were all horrified as we caught a glimpse of what was actually making the noise—it was what looked like a test animal, but somehow human; it looked sort of like a gorilla—walking around with its whole entire chest and stomach cavity ripped and hanging out dragging on the floor.
Its eyes were covered with some sort of device that was fastened with nuts and bolts that were dug deep into its skull and it had what looked like manacles which were busted on each of its arms—Christina, Kira, Meghan and a few of the others couldn’t stand the sight of the thing and ran back behind us where they puked; I opened fire on the thing with my M16 as did the others, Angie fired a shot with her magnum and hit the thing in the forehead sending it to the floor where it wildly torn about in one spot knocking over things until it finally stopped moving and formed a big pool of blood around the carnage it was already leaking.
“What the fuck was that thing?!” Noah said helping Christina to her feet.
“Beats the hell out of me man, but from now on—we better all be careful.” I answered as I lowered the barrel of my M16 and walked toward the thing.
We walked around the gore and checked the back of the room where the thing had been and discovered another elevator, this one was rather different looking then the others we had used inside this place before; this elevator looked like the kind that were always inside of mines and underground storage areas as it was entirely metal with steel bars on the sides and a control panel near the back. Everyone got on it and I went to operate the panel when I found that it needed some kind of key.
“Damn it! We’re gonna have to find the key before we can use it.” I stated as everyone got back off.
“Maybe it’s around this room somewhere—I’ll look around.” Noah stated as he started shuffling through junk on several of the metal tables on the far side of the room.
Christina joined him as everyone else started rummaging through desks and on bookshelves around the room—Angie, Jennifer and I were going through a briefcase that had been sitting on the floor leaning against one of the table legs when Melvin called our attention to the corpse of a lab worker who appeared to have been almost completely devoured—his flesh was almost gone and so were most of his limbs as well, he was wearing something around what looked like it had been his neck.
“That’s really disgusting…looks like we’ll have to touch it to get what’s around his neck.” Angie stated as she knelt down next to me as I knelt examining it.
“Hand me a pair of those latex gloves from that counter over there—if there’s anything toxic on this cadaver, I’m not taking the chance of getting it too.” I stated as I turned to face her.
Angie grabbed a pair from the countertop and handed them to me and once I had them on, I reached down and managed to pull the thing off from around the corpse’ neck; upon better inspection, we seen that it was an elevator key—a rather odd looking one, but that’s what it was.
“This should do it you guys—back on the elevator!” I shouted as I walked over and stuck the key into the keyhole on the control panel.
Sure enough—the key fit and with a turn to the right, the elevator powered up and all these lights came on and lit up the control panel. “What do you suppose is at the bottom for the key to be worn around someone’s neck at all times?” Kira asked in a curious voice.
“I don’t know, but be ready for anything.” I answered as I removed the latex gloves tossing them aside before glancing up at the room above as we were now disappearing down a long blank shaft.
We all waited with our guns ready as the elevator continued its descent downward, it was taking so long that Noah and Subotai struck up a conversation about pickle-flavored potato chips.
“Those are pretty good—I had them before the zombies came.” Meghan stated as she laughed and smiled up at Subotai—who had somehow went from talking about potato chips to cow patties in the hot July sun.
“That’s gross!” Alex stated with a giggle.
Angie, Jennifer and I were in our own corner kissing in a heated way, everyone was jolted and startled as the elevator finally made a stop on the bottom.
“I’ll be damned…we must be at least a mile under the city…what could possibly be down here?” Cedric said aloud in a gruff voice.
“Those wacko science freaks could have done anything they wanted to down here, and nobody up above would have ever known about it.” Christina stated as she strapped Jude into the baby harness she wore on her back.
Angie done the same with our daughters, then she reloaded her magnum.
“I sure hope we don’t run out of ammo like we did the last time.” James stated as he held his .45 handgun tightly in both hands.
“Have you guys been here before?” Melvin asked turning toward Angie and I.
“No…we didn’t even know this place existed, the path to the elevator we just used was sealed when we came here the first time.” I answered as I looked around the area.
“What do you suppose is in those huge cra
tes over there?” My dad asked pointing to several big crates which were sitting over by a door going to another part of the complex.
“I hate to think of what might be in those.” My mom stated with a little shiver.
“Let’s see where that door goes…” I said leading the way with my M16 ready.
Once everyone was to the door I opened it with some effort only to find a storage room filled with the same crates—now that I had a good look at them I seen the red biohazard emblem stamped on the sides; further examination revealed another door on the west wall of the room so I went forward and opened it next, we came into yet another storage room.
“What’s with all the damn crates?” Noah asked aloud.
“Whatever they are they are obviously some sort of chemical, maybe even some sort of mutagenic toxin related to the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin mentioned in the memos we found; so don’t touch any of the crates.” I answered as I carefully brushed past one that looked to have fallen from a shelf on the wall.
We were facing yet another door, this time on the north wall—I opened it and another storage room was waiting.
“Is that all this place is—some storage area?” Noah asked in an annoyed tone.
“I doubt it—they wouldn’t have gone through such great efforts to hide it if it was just a cache for crates and other meaningless junk.” I answered heading for the door on the south side.
I opened it expecting to find another storage room, but there was a hallway instead.
“Finally!” Noah said stepping out into the hallway.
“I told you there had to be more here…that looks like a door down there, let’s go!” I stated leading the way halfway down the hall until we were all standing in front of an electronic door with a numeral key panel on the wall next to it.
“How are we gonna get inside?” Melvin asked as he scratched his head in confusion.
“Let me try something…” I said as I started punching buttons.
I typed in the letters “T.H.C.A.I.A” and waited a second, and then the thing buzzed which meant that I was wrong.
“Try the last name of that head researcher who was working here!” Angie said suddenly as she opened my bag and searched through the documents we had found before.
I typed in the letters “BOWMAN” but once again, it buzzed.
“I got it this time baby—type in “BOWMAN-CONNER”—see if that works!” Angie stated again—this time in an excited tone of voice.
I typed the letters in and waited half a second and there was a beep and the doors opened.
“That was great baby—you did it!” I cried hugging and kissing Angie as Jennifer wrapped her arms around me with an excited grin.
We stepped into the new room to find a huge red biohazard symbol on the clean white floor—in the center of the room there was this black octagon-shaped barrier like structure that was sealed on all sides, then towards the back of the room there were two metal doors, one on each side of the barrier and control panels beside of them; dried blood was all over the wall on the left side of the room as well as parts of the floor.
“Hey—what’s this?” Noah stated as he picked up a handful of what looked like fax machine documents.
“Let me see those.” I said walked up to him.
He handed them to me and I read aloud:
September 23, 2000
“We’ve done it now, all we have to do is wait for the perfect time to release our new ‘germ’ on the world at large. The Entity seems to be stabilizing and is now quietly awaiting its release; I can’t wait to see the horrified looks on the faces of all those stupid fools when the time comes—they will pay dearly for what they done to Laura!”
September 24, 2000
“It appears that things are going just as planned on the world above, the corpses we injected the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin into have escaped the several hospitals and have attacked the living—in turn creating more hell spawn just like them. Too bad that none of those fools above will ever know about the reversing process or the fact that their redemption lies herein.”
September 26, 2000
“That fool Conner is dead—found him in his bed chamber this morning with a massive bullet hole in his head—apparently, he got to feeling guilty about what we have been doing down here and decided to put a pistol into his mouth…oh well—I don’t need half-asses and I don’t need that imbecile any longer anyway…in fact, I just might ‘use’ his body for one of my creations. I have a great idea for him—he can wander around in one of the upper rooms with his intestines hanging out and pretend to be a monkey—as I have mixed his DNA with not only the T.H.C.A.I.A Toxin, but also the genes of an ape.”
September 28, 2000
“I finished making the sample in case something were to happen to me as I now seek to escape from this lab…where I am going will be known only by me—that way should the unlikely happen and someone from that damned world above happens along this fax, they won’t have a clue as to where I went.”
“That’s all of it…” I finished as I put the documents into my pack with the rest of the important papers.
“Shit…that Bowman guy is a real psychopath!” Christina stated as she clung to Noah’s arm, shivering.
“He mentioned that they would ‘pay for what they done to Laura’…who the hell is that?” Melvin asked with a dumbfounded look.
“No clue…” I answered as I briefly glanced his way.
“It says ‘their redemption lies herein’…what do you suppose this ‘sample’ thing was that he mentioned?” Noah asked raising his right eyebrow.
“There might be more clues through those doors, let’s see if we can open them.” I stated walking toward them.
Once I got there, I tried to open the one near me while Noah and Subotai tried to open the one on the other side of the barrier, they would not even budge.
“There must be something holding them…hold on you guys—go to the control panel and type “CONNER” into it after I tell you too!” I called over to Noah and Subotai.
I went to mine and typed in the word “BOWMAN” then I gave the signal and Noah typed in “CONNER” on the other control panel; both of the doors suddenly slid open revealing another room behind the barrier. Angie, Jennifer and I, as well as Noah, Christina and Melvin went into the room and found a glass casing in the middle where a vial of clear liquid was sitting, I popped the lid off and before I could examine it Noah grabbed it and started looking at it in his hand.
“It says ‘Antitoxin Sample 3’…that’s all it says.” He answered as he handed the vial to me.
There was a sudden noise, I looked back at the case and seen that there had been a hidden switch underneath the sample that had been activated when Noah had carelessly grabbed it—that’s when there was another noise from the other room where the others were waiting; we rushed out there to see that the center barrier was opening—steam poured out of the concealed room and lights from inside of it flashed. We watched in wonder as the thing opened all the way and then something huge caught our attention, there coming out of the center was a huge, grotesque creature that walked on four legs, had two huge arms with claws and other things on them, and a face out of the worst nightmare imaginable—it made its way out and then reared its head back and roared; at that moment, it released its wings that were on its back as well as a long tail that had a lance like thing on the end.
It suddenly struck Subotai with its tail and to our horror and disbelief—ripped him in half sending both halves of his body in opposite directions. I opened fire on the thing as did the others, most of us were falling back towards the door, but there were a few of the others like James, Alex, Cole and Patty—who for some crazy reason—were up in the thing’s face shooting at it. They were suddenly consumed by some kind of liquid that the monster sprayed out of its mouth—right before our eyes, their flesh melted off their bo
dies. Meghan screamed as the monster grabbed her up as we were all fleeing out the door, it took hold of her arms and legs and pulled them off her body spraying blood all over the room.
“Come on Chaz!”
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Angie shouted pulling me through the door.
I took one last look and fired with my grenade launcher hitting a tank of propane inside the room that exploded as we fled down the hall towards the end, when we got there the others were struggling to crawl up a drainpipe that was in the wall.
“What the hell are you guys doing?”
“We need to get back to the elevator!” I shouted in a frantic voice.
I looked back and the monster was starting to rip the wall apart. “The map on this wall says that this pipe leads back to the surface!” Noah reported as he pointed to a map layout that was fastened to the concrete wall with four screws.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here!” I answered as I hustled everyone else into the pipe as well as Angie and Jennifer before I went myself.
We were all able to make it most of the way up the pipe, below we could hear the monster roar in anger; after crawling and straining not to get all cut up by the metal, we all managed to make it to the surface where a heavy steel grating blocked our way to the outside. It had a fairly new lock attached to a thick chain and was keeping the grating from being opened from the outside—careful not to lose my leverage against the walls of the pipe I pointed my magnum at the lock and pulled the trigger; the lock dropped off and I grabbed the chain pulling it free as the others helped me push the heavy steel grating open. We all looked around, we were a very long ways from the city—in fact, we were out in a field and it was starting to rain. We all plopped down onto the ground trying to catch our breath.
[HGB] Humanity Gone Bad: The Dead Chronicles Page 14
