by Grivante
Jonah, swaying, backpack still on, fell from the van as it smacked into the concrete wall at five miles an hour, just inches away from a large industrial propane tank used to feed the building’s labs. Judas caught him and together they made their way into the facility.
A gentle chatter punctuated by sharp cries followed in the brother’s wake as Judas helped his injured brother through the hallway past the open lab area. Dr. Nitsau’s office sat at the back, door closed, windows greyed out, one of her large guards standing at attention just outside.
By the time Judas came before her door, most of the technicians working in the lab had fallen silent and stared after them. A trail of blood from Jonah’s mangled hand, wrapped in a soaked towel, dripped behind them. The guard, an ex-soldier from some foreign military named Nathaniel, stepped before the door, blocking their access.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he grunted.
“We need to see her, right now,” Judas panted.
The man looked them over, saw the blood dripping from the wet towel around Jonah’s hand and shook his head.
“I don’t think so.”
“She’ll want to hear what we have to say, we’ve got important news regarding our latest job,” Judas said, hefting Jonah with his shoulder.
The guard shook his head again. “No.”
“Look, would you just ask her? Tell her we came from Sunnyside Mall, she’ll know what that means.”
The guard’s brow furrowed. “She doesn’t care about that fleabag mall.”
“Oh, I think she does,” Judas said. “Ask her, if she says no, we’ll leave.”
Nathaniel glowered down at them a moment, then sighed. “Fine. Try any funny business and his other hand will be even worse.”
Judas smiled and nodded in agreement as the guard turned and punched a code into the keypad on the door. It whooshed open and he went inside, immediately stopped by a sharp bark from Dr. Nitsau.
“I told you I was not to be disturbed!” her voice shot from the darkness.
Judas grimaced, then whispered at his brother. “Sorry, Jonah.” He dropped the shoulder he carried his brother on and let him fall to the floor. Freed from the obstructive weight, he lifted his right leg and kicked into the guard’s knee pit, sending him sprawling forward onto the ground just as he turned back, red-faced and ready to blow.
Jonah landed on his right knee, groaning in pain as he watched his brother take the guard down with one kick before turning back to pull him into the office.
“Nice kick,” he smiled, wincing in discomfort as he got to his feet, blinking to steady himself in the dimly lit room.
A series of bright screens illuminated the back wall of the office behind Dr. Nitsau’s desk. Faces were in each. Men and women wearing serious looks stared out, expressions of shock on each. The doctor sat in her chair, half-turned around, face twisted with rage.
“What is the meaning of this?” a bald man in his upper-sixties who was displayed on the center screen barked before anyone else could react. “Dr. Nitsau, get your lackeys under control.” The monitor went black, followed immediately by the others, each face blinking out, except the one at the top, which showed the horrified face of Dr. Nitsau staring out at Judas.
“Judas!” Jonah yelled, breaking his brother’s captivation at the scene, having seen Nathaniel turning around.
Judas bit his lip and watched as the large man rolled to his back, grasping for his gun. Judas pulled Jonah’s revolver from his waistband, where he had placed it after the mall, and aimed it at the guard. “Drop it and leave.”
The man glared at him, knowing he was beat but unwilling to give in.
“Go,” Dr. Nitsau hissed at him. “The boys obviously have something they need to talk about.” Her eyes flicked between them, taking in the blood-covered towel covering Jonah’s hand and Judas’s steely resolve.
Nathaniel stood and hopped on his good leg from the room, staring Judas in the eyes as he went by. “We’re not done.”
As soon as he was outside, Judas reached up and hit the button that closed the door and turned to Dr. Nitsau, who studied Jonah with narrow eyes.
“What is this?” she asked.
“We need the vaccine!” Judas snapped.
She looked at him out of the corner of her right eye. “He’s been bitten?”
“Yes,” Jonah spoke as he wobbled up against the far wall, seeking support from it. “At that massacre you created at the mall.”
For a moment, her face darkened and he expected some kind of rebuff. Then, like a guilty child who couldn’t help it, she broke into a wide grin. “I wondered why you were back so soon. I figured that would keep you two busy most of the afternoon.”
“So, you were behind it?” Jonah growled.
“Hahaha, you—” she laughed and shook her head. “Ah, Jonah, always with the bark. And now it looks like you must have been bitten in a dog fight. Surely you knew well before now that many of the jobs you took on weren’t natural?”
He looked away, knowing they had suspected something was amiss but continuing on despite his better judgment. “I’ve always known something wasn’t right with you—”
“Ah,” she held up a finger. “And yet you’ve been a good boy, doing what you were told.”
“Not anymore,” he stared at her in defiance.
She smiled back, then turned to Judas. “Is that what you say too?” her eye’s softened, her lips parting.
“We only want the vaccine,” Judas said, his voice shaky. “It’s not too late.”
She laughed again. “There is no vaccine. You’re better off putting a bullet in him and saving him from going through the agony of the change. You’ve seen it enough to know what that’s like.”
Judas glanced at Jonah, tears in his eyes.
“Judas,” she said, drawing his attention back to her and stepping around the desk so he could see her tight white skirt and long stockinged legs. She’d noticed he had a thing for them and often used them when she wanted to shut him up. “Your brother is going to die. You can either help him do it now, or be forced to do it when he turns. If you choose the latter, it’ll be too late for me and you.”
“Wh-what do you mean, ‘me and you’?” Judas asked, gripping his trembling hands on the butt of Brutus.
“Come now, Judas. We’ve been flirting far too long to pretend any longer,” she took a step closer.
“No,” Judas shook his head. “You’re not doing this. Not now.”
Her smile expanded and she opened her arms. “It didn't make sense before, but now I see the possibilities. Your brother is lost, you can salvage this situation for yourself and join me.”
“Join you?” Judas’s eyes widened, cheeks flushing.
“Yes. Join me. I’m so close to achieving everything I’ve been working for.”
“What do you mean?”
She waved a hand toward the lab. “All of this. The dead, bringing them back to life. I’ve mastered it and soon, soon I’ll be able to control them as well, then I’ll teach those old fools,” she shot a glance at the dark screens, “that Dr. Natasha Nitsau will win their little game. Armageddon will come, and I will be its mistress.”
Judas stared at her dumbfounded, mind rolling.
Jonah coughed. “You’re crazy.”
She laughed at this, laughed and laughed, only stopping when she found the barrel of Brutus aimed right between her eyes.
“Now, Judas—” she started, inching away from him.
“We know there’s a vaccine,” Judas glanced at his brother, who nodded at him. “You wouldn’t unleash something like this without having a safety net in place.”
The look on her face soured and her eyes bore into Judas’s. A momentary glimpse of fear crossed her eyes and Judas pounced.
He grabbed her by the lapel of her ever-present lab coat and pressed the greasy muzzle against her cheek. “Where is it?”
“There’s no—”
“If he dies, you die.” Judas
pulled back the hammer.
She looked away in disgust. “Fine,” she said, spitting the words from her lips. “It’s here.” She turned and walked over to a keypad by the side of the screens, Judas followed close at her heels. With a punch of a few keys, the monitor right above her, slid up revealing a safe with its own numbered pad.
The environmentally controlled safe was gleaming black steel and hissed when it opened. From inside, Dr. Nitsau pulled out a silver case about the size of a child’s lunch box. She flipped the clasp on it, held her thumb to a sensor and the lid popped open. In the case, lay two dozen small syringes with a clear liquid in them.
Judas peered at the syringes. “Is that it?”
“Yes.” She scowled at him.
“And injecting him with this will stop the infection from spreading?”
Her lips tightened, eyes narrowing. “It will stop the virus and make him immune to this particular strain. Though bites will still kill him if he gets careless. I’ve only tested it on a few subjects, it works but I don’t know what the side effects might be.”
Judas nodded, took one and rushed over to his brother, popping the cap off the needle and sliding it into his brothers left bicep, thumb pausing over the plunger. Am I doing this right? he wondered and turned back to ask Dr. Nitsau, only to find her clicking buttons on another keypad along the rear wall. A panel whooshed open, revealing a hidden passageway and with a sneer back in their direction, she ran through it, the door slamming shut behind her.
“Crap,” Judas made to stand but Jonah’s hand on his arm stopped him.
“Just push it in and let’s get out of here. We’ll figure out another way to deal with that crazy bitch.”
“Ok, bro.” Judas turned back, face glowering, and pushed the plunger, sending the liquid into his brother’s muscle.
They remained on the floor next to each other, panting, resting for the first time in several hours. A light humming emanated from nearby and the office blinds rolled up, giving a view into the lab. The overhead lights dimmed and red emergency signals flashed. The brothers sat up and looked out through the window.
In the lab, technicians and scientists stopped working, also looking around in confusion. Then, a green mist blew out from the black air pipes in the ceiling, filling the room with its deadly poison. The brothers stood and watched as the gas claimed its victims. One by one the lab personnel fell to it, coughing and hacking, gasping for breath, and crying out in agony. Even Nathaniel who had been sitting at a nearby desk rubbing his knee, succumbed to the toxin.
Judas choked back tears as he saw someone he’d talked to a few times collapse just outside the window. “How could she do this? Kill all those people! For what?” He looked to Jonah who stared out the window, as shocked as he was.
Then a whoosh sounded and the main door to the office opened, green gas billowing in.
Part VII - Feeling the Burn
“That bitch!” Judas shouted. “She’s trying to kill us all!”
“Grab the rest of the vaccines,” Jonah pushed his brother toward the desk where she had set the silver case and slung the backpack off his shoulder.
Judas stopped short. “They’re gone! She took them!”
“Dammit,” Jonah spat. “Of course she did. She planned this the moment she gave in to giving me the vaccine. She wasn’t going to let us live.”
“What do we do, Jonah?” Judas asked, staring at the green fog filling the room as they backed away from it.
“Here,” Jonah unzipped the backpack and pulled out a gas mask, tossing it to him. “Put this on, then we’ll get out of here.”
Jonah pulled his own on, not sure if he’d need it or not but figuring it’s better to be safe than sorry. He turned to look out into the lab where the sound of screeching metal caught his attention. Three of the dead lab technicians were on their feet, crashing into tables and stools, making a racket on the concrete floor. He pulled the strap on his mask tight and patted around his body for a weapon, finding only a knife, uncertain in the craziness of the last thirty minutes where the rest had gone.
“They’re already turning!” Judas’s muffled voice cried out.
Jonah nodded. “She must’ve found a way to speed it up. It makes sense. Whatever her plan is, she’d want them to turn quickly.”
“How are we getting out of here?”
In the lab, a dozen dead were standing, more rising around the room. Then, at the doorway, came Nathaniel. His broad frame blocked the light, arms outstretched, a loud groan escaping his lips as he trundled toward Jonah.
“What do you have for weapons?” Jonah asked, backing away from the large man’s approach and noticing that outside, others had caught sight of the activity and were moving in the office’s direction.
Judas looked himself over. “Just Brutus and two knives, I left everything else in the van or at the mall after you got bit. I—”
“Okay. We can’t fight our way out of here.” He shifted and glanced at the spot on the wall Dr. Nitsau had escaped through. “See if you can get that door open!” Jonah tracked Nathaniel as he drew closer than rushed him, knocking him back out the doorway and into two of the other zombies.
Judas stared at the wall. The seam where the panel opened ran alongside the keypad, but he had no idea what the code was or what to do. So he tried what he’d seen in at least a dozen movies over the years. He shot the control pad with Brutus. Sparks and shrapnel flew, but the panel didn’t budge. He grunted and kicked out, hitting the door with all his might. Nothing. Not even a dent.
“Here!” Jonah shouted, “Help me with this desk.”
His brother stood at the side of Dr. Nitsau’s desk, right hand under the lip. “Let’s use this to block the door, it’ll buy us some time.”
Judas shoved Brutus into his belt and joined Jonah, flipping the desk over and sending its contents flying. They slid it across the room and crammed it into the doorway. It wouldn’t hold long, but it bought them a minute.
“Why did you shoot the control panel?” Jonah asked.
Judas, glad that the mask covered his sheepish expression shrugged. “I’d seen it work in movies.”
Jonah shook his head and scanned the office. “Give me my gun.” He held out his right hand to his brother. Judas gave it to him. The smoking panel sparked and sizzled. Jonah sighed and lowered his chin staring at the floor. Panic rose as the groans of more and more of the dead drew nearer and he heard their makeshift barricade scrape along the ground behind him. Then, he spotted something on the floor beneath where the desk had sat, a small recessed panel.
He fell to his knees and popped it open, revealing a box with three buttons and a small lever. He pressed the first button and the blinds lowered. When he pushed the second button, the door to the office tried to close but stopped because of the desk blocking it. He hit the third button and turned to the panel in the wall, nothing happened.
A loud scraping sounded as the now large crowd of dead outside pushed the desk out of the way. Jonah reached in and twisted the lever and heard with relief a whooshing sound from the location of the secret door.
“Yeehaw,” Judas yelled. “You did it!”
Jonah got to his feet, swaying. The pain in his hand radiated through his whole body, causing him to grimace. “Go! Let’s get out of here!”
The brothers ran into the dark corridor, the dead employees in pursuit.
The passage led to a staircase, dropping down two floors before coming to another hidden panel. This one opened to a brightly lit hallway. Jonah recognized the space as the concrete passageway that ran from the elevator to offices in the back.
The elevator was immediately to their right and went up to the small shop that they used when they delivered specimens from an outbreak. It also went several levels down to the sub-basements where Dr. Nitsau stored her experiments in refrigerated lockers.
Escape or revenge? Jonah's head swiveled back and forth. If she was on this floor, there was no way out that he knew of. If they
searched for her here, they’d have the horde of dead coming down the stairs, trapping them from behind.
He turned and headed toward the elevator. “C’mon, Judas, let’s go, she's not worth it.” Judas nodded and followed, stopping just short of it as Jonah pressed the up button. They both froze as the click of heels echoed through the hallway behind them. They spun and saw, emerging from around the far corner, Dr. Nitsau, her face enraged behind a gas mask of her own, phone held in one hand, the silver case of vaccines in her other.
“Send an extraction team via helicopter to the top of the lab immediately, there’s been another outbreak. I’ll be—” she stopped short, spotting the brothers staring back at her. Jonah and the doctor locked eyes.
The door behind them dinged, opening just as the first of the zombies fell from the stairway into the hall. She snarled, seeing the dead stand, some coming for her and others heading in the brothers’ direction. Jonah had Brutus out and aimed straight at her.
“Jonah!” Judas shouted, “the elevator!” Jonah glanced back, saw the open lift, and nodded, keeping the gun trained on Dr. Nitsau as the two groups of zombies approached them both.
“Go, go!” he ushered his brother in and cursed as the doctor disappeared back around the corner, the majority of her dead former employees close behind her. He stabbed the button for the main level and leaned against the wall.
The doors opened into the shop and Jonah could tell by the green haze on the floor it hadn’t been just the lab she’d gassed. There were two zombies stumbling aimlessly, now coming toward them, attracted by the ding of the elevator door opening.
“Take them out with your knife,” Jonah instructed, scanning the room for anything useful. He spotted three large red gas canisters and some smaller propane tanks sitting on metal shelving against the far wall. As soon as Judas had finished off the two dead employees, he yelled at him. “Bring those gas cans and propane to the elevator. I’ve got a little surprise for the good doctor.”
Judas’s eyes narrowed, uncertain what his brother meant at first, but grabbed the cans two at a time and hauled them over. “What are you thinking?”
