by Maxey, Phil
“What—”
A knocking came from the door to the right. They both stood silent, listening to the scuffling. Jess walked towards it. “We need to rescue as many as we can.” She waved the card across the device, making the door flick open. “Hello? Are you…”
A stench she recognized was escaping through the inch of gap between the door and frame. She slammed it shut cutting short a screech erupting from inside and a dent appeared in the metal surface, as something heavy and angry impacted the other side. She jumped back almost falling over her feet while another thud came from the door. She looked at Arlene. “There could be anything in these cells…”
She swung around, looking at the eleven or so other doors in the corridor. “Hello! Is there anyone here!” she shouted, trying to be heard over the incessant siren and message. No voices of any kind replied so with Arlene, she walked along the corridor, knocking on them in passing. By time they reached the end, they were bathed again in red light.
They both looked up at words above the final door which didn’t mean much to either of them.
‘Central hub - 03’
Arlene looked at the innocent looking door. “What you think is on the other side?”
Jess looked back the way they had come and the darkness at the other end, then back to the door. “Only one way to find out.”
“Hey, wa—” Jess had already swiped across the box and the door opened. She put the barrel of the gun in the gap and pushed it open further. A well lit room was on the other side, with five more doors, each one apart from the last marked with ‘Confinement’ and then a number. The last though was what Jess was already walking towards for it was marked with ‘stairwell.’
“You think that’s going to take us to the surface?” said Arlene, closing the door to the previous block of cells.
Jess swiped the card again, not answering and pushed the door open and moved into the narrow space, with stairs going in both directions. On the wall, stenciled into it was a list, a description of the other floors.
Arlene noticed the word ‘Exit,’ at the top and started ascending, but stopped on sensing she was alone. She turned around. “What are you waiting for, lets get out of here!”
“I’m not leaving without the vaccine. I can’t…” She spotted the floor she wanted, unfortunately it was the lowest, three flights down. She looked over the guardrail but only darkness existed in the pit below.
“Yeah, no way I’m going down there,” said Arlene. “Who knows what shit they got in those labs.” She started to climb the steps again. “Well, it’s been nice knowing ya.”
Jess looked up at her. “You think you’re going to survive by yourself?”
Arlene stopped without turning around.
“There are monsters everywhere, but hey, if you want to risk it, then good luck.” She heard the young girl swear then sigh.
Arlene turned around and came back down. “Fine. We get this stupid vaccine, then we leave, right?”
“Yup.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
8:54 p.m Highway 54.
“Hey buddy… Landon… you alive, buddy?”
Sound and fury erupted inside Landon’s brain, then just as quickly subsided being replaced with a skull cracking pulsing. He immediately held his forehead, his fingers feeling wet. Something was licking his face.
“Oh shit, you’re alive. He’s alive!”
He looked up at Donnie and Warren looking down at him, then behind the bearded man appeared Arlo, the latter rushing forward, kneeling next to him.
“Don’t try and move, I think your left arm’s broken.”
Landon grimaced. “Always the left…” He sat up, ignoring the pain. “Jess?”
“She’s gone. They took her,” said Warren. “And some others.”
“Who?”
“I’m guessing, Biochron,” said Arlo.
Smoke drifted across his face. He scanned the still burning carcasses of creatures, both natural and not, and the wagons. “Are the things gone?”
“Biochron killed them all.”
“Well, whoever they are, I’m glad they did,” said Warren. He looked off into the silhouette of trees against the darkness. “Reckon they’ll be more coming though.”
“They’re attracted to the fires,” said Landon, trying to stand. “We can’t stay here.”
A younger man he hadn’t seen at first, appeared from behind a wreckage of a wagon. He had a piece of wood and some tape. “We have to set your arm.”
“You’re the paramedic?” said Landon.
He nodded. “Yup, name’s Bradley, but people usually just call me Brad. I’m going to need you to try and stretch your arm out… I’ve only done this a few times before, so… you know…”
Landon nodded, trying to do so while looking around. “Are we the only survivors?”
A glance passed between the others.
“What is it?”
“Clint, and his son and daughter, also survived,” said Brad.
“No surprise there,” said Warren.
“They left?”
Arlo looked at a pile of items about twenty feet away. “Were rummaging around over there. I think they found something.”
“Then they took off,” said Brad.
“Said they were going to find the ‘rich people,’ whatever that meant,” said Warren.
“Vaccine…” Landon said under his breath.
“Okay,” said Brad. “Now put your hand up against your—” Donnie stood abruptly, looking north then let out a subtle bark. Everyone but Brad looked in the same direction, who continued the wrap. Landon groaned. “Okay, it’s not great, but it’s going to have to do. I know this might sound like a stupid thing to say, but don’t try and move it.”
Landon looked down at the tight binding around the piece of foot long plank, and nodded with a brief smile. “Thank you.”
Donnie barked again, louder.
“We got to go,” said Warren. Each of the survivors picked up a backpack of salvaged belongings and weapons.
Landon looked out into the absolute black, not seeing any sign of movement, but that was not his only purpose for scanning the horizon. He looked at Arlo. “Did you see what direction Clint went?”
The older man nodded towards the north.
“That’s were I need to go then.”
“What about Jess?”
Landon started walking, stepping over the refuse and avoiding what was still alight. “There’s no way of finding her right now. But if I find Clint, I find the vaccine and then maybe Meg and my children.” He swallowed as he finished the sentence, his emotions wanting to overwhelm him. He looked more directly at Arlo. “I’m going to need you to find a way of opening that box.” Before Arlo could respond he turned away and started walking.
“Okay…”
*****
9:12 p.m. Biochron headquarters. Denver.
“I hate this silence,” said Arlene.
Both women walked slowly, staying close together along the shadow ridden corridor. A light flickered above, staying alive just long enough each time to allow them to see their destination, a partially open door at the other end.
Jess strained every sense she had for the slightest of sounds, and as they neared the door she picked some up, but these were mechanical in nature. She glanced back. “Don’t touch anything. I don’t know what they were working on down here.”
“Shit, don’t have to tell me.”
She slowly nudged the door open to a large room lit only by blue florescent glows from a whole bank of refrigeration units with clear doors. The rest of the room contained the kind of equipment she only dreamed of using when she worked on the surface. A large silver machine, looking like an oversized microscope, which was in fact the latest of the electron kind was in the far corner, next to something much more mundane looking but equally impressive. A genetic sequencer. Not like the decade old one she had to use, but one she had only heard rumors of existing. Arlo’s assertion that Bio
chron worked for the government and military was evident all around her.
She quickly moved past a few counters but slowed on nearing the first of the units which held rows and rows of bottles containing… things… mostly a few inches across but others stretching to over a foot. Miniature versions of what had tried to kill her over the past three days were being kept in some modern version of a macabre museum.
“What does this—”
Jess whirled around. “Don’t touch! Anything!”
Arlene frowned, pulling her hand back from a series of vials on a stand, then looked at what was closer to Jess. “So they been keeping the things in jars? Why am I not surprised.”
Jess shook her head. “I don’t know. These look like… something else.” She moved past unit after unit, each one containing a new horror but promptly stopped at the final. Inside were trays of the tiny bottles she had been looking for. She pulled the door open and pulled—
“Fuck!”
Jess swung around, almost dropping the tray in her hand.
An older man was standing in an open doorway at the far corner of the room. His face was partially in shadow but enough was still visible for her to recognize.
“You…”
He walked forward, but both women wished he hadn’t for half of his face was something else. It reminded Jess of her dream and she wanted to retch.
“He’s… he’s one of those things! Shoot him!” screamed Arlene, backing away.
Jess placed the tray on the nearby counter and quickly raised her weapon.
“I can assure you, I am not one of those ‘things’ as you so crudely put it.” He walked further into the light.
Jess took a step back, but kept her gun aimed squarely at his head. “Who are you? What happened here?”
“Good to see you are recovering, Mrs. Keller. That would be the Gecko genes doing their work…”
“Start answering questions, damnit! Or I’m going to do what she wants!”
He sat on a stool at one of the counters, then took a long drawn out intake of breath before continuing. “My name is Charles Rackham. Chief scientist at Biochron.”
“No, you’re not. Daniel Boyer is!”
“That would be… above ground… But to answer your other question. We had not taken into account what having so many immunes in one place would do, which is ironic considering they are not actually immune.”
Images of Amos’s face filtered across Jess’s mind. She wanted the man in front of her dead, but she needed to know more. “What are you talking about?”
“The virus inside the creatures looks to absorb non-infected tissue. The hosts are able to sense other infected beings, but those that are more resistant are of greater interest to them. Think of it as a smell. The immunes give off the strongest.”
She thought back to what happened to Grace in the motorhome and what had happened just a few hours earlier on the highway. The immunes were doomed as soon as they stopped moving.
“What did you mean, it’s ironic?” said Arlene.
He looked at her, making her wince a little. “There’s no such thing as an ‘immune,’ just those that the virus takes longer to affect. For some it could be extra hours, others days, but eventually every living organism on this planet will be changed before the six day period is over, unless… they have the vaccine.”
Arlene looked at Jess and the content of the tray on the counter in front of her and ran towards it.
“I… wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”
Both women looked at him.
“What?” said Jess.
“That’s not the vaccine. The vaccine is kept in a vault in another part of the complex. One which I’m afraid is completely overrun by the ‘things.’”
In that moment, Jess discovered it wasn’t only her sight that had improved but her hearing as well. His heart was beating like a bass drum. “He’s lying,” she said.
“I can assure you, I’m not. But, please, if you do not believe me, drink what’s inside those bottles. But when you die horribly, do not blame me.”
Arlene looked between the two scientists.
Jess picked up the tray and as she did she heard his heart beating faster. “Okay, so I’ll just drop—” She let it go knowing she was fast enough to catch it a fraction of a second later, but that was enough time for the old man to cry out for her to stop.
Arlene swiped a bottle, twisted the top off and gulped down the contents. Hate flowed across Rackham’s face.
“You started to change,” said Jess. “But you managed to take the vaccine just in time, right?”
He frowned, then stood. “You can’t have them. They are the property of Biochron!”
Arlene shook her head in disbelief. “Who you gonna sell it to? Everyones dead or a monster!”
Jess glanced at the other units, then back to the man. “Not everyone is dead, are they?” He remained silent. “Out there. Somewhere are people, waiting for this vaccine.” He didn’t react, but he didn’t need to, she could hear his heart.
Arlene smiled. “Well, we got a gun. So we’re just going to—”
The speed of the being in front of Jess, shook her but she managed to dive to her right, before a clawed hand scythed through the air where her head had just been. She landed hard on the floor, as did the tray of bottles, some shattering on impact, but the young girl had fared worse. She staggered backwards, falling against the other counter, holding her throat as blood seeped between her fingers. Jess’s head flicked back up but all she could see was the side of the counter. She had no idea where Rackham had gone.
“You’ll never find them, Jesssiccca…”
Arlene slid slowly to the ground as Jess crawled towards her, trying to get a fix on where the man’s voice was coming from. The young girl’s eyes closed, her hand falling by her side and blood continued gushing from the wound in her neck. Jess stood upright in a fury, firing the gun across the darkness of the rest of the room. Bullets pinged off million dollar medical devices, vials exploded in a shower of glass, but for all the rage, there was no sign of whatever Rackham had become. She stopped firing, out of breath. The door in the far corner was open.
CHAPTER TWENTY
9:46 p.m Highway 54.
The pain sang in Landon’s left arm, roughly in time with each impact his boots made on the frost covered concrete. A stabbing sensation that overlaid a constant ache. The young guy had done a good job with the strap, without it he doubted he would be going anywhere. Up ahead Warren walked with a tiny flashlight, the kind that would be kept with keys, but the former follower of Isiah only used it in short bursts to not allow any of the things to get a definite fix on where they were. The surrounding night though was still rich with shapes Landon wasn’t able to quite define and he often raised his rifle, using its scope to try and penetrate the void for any sign of movement.
He staggered forward with the three others and the dog, towards… he no idea where, he just hoped it was the same direction that the vaccine had gone. They would be looking for a vehicle and if they found one, there would be no hope of getting the only thing keeping him, Meg and the kids alive, back.
Jess…
His mind swung between joy, knowing she had been saved and guilt that he had let his wife be taken once again. As he pushed his tired muscles onward he swore there would be no more ‘next time,’ no more being separated from his family. And nothing and no one was going to get in the way of that. There were only just over three day’s left of the nightmare. He just needed to find the damn vaccine.
Rectangular dark shapes loomed on the horizon, just above the rise they were walking up. Possible buildings.
“You see those places up there?” he said to those in front.
Warren stopped, flicking on his light and pointed it to the northwest.
Landon looked through the scope. There were definitely structures, but too small to be homes… something else. Shacks or trailers. “We should check them out.”
The
others agreed and they quickened their pace arriving at a wooden sign. ‘Gerald’s trailers and sheds.’ Together with another advertisement mentioning storage available.
As they continued Warren waved the beam of light across the mixture of wooden constructions, some just a few feet across, others similar to small barns, then further ahead to a larger block of buildings. “Reckon those are the storage units.”
Landon spotted an even bigger place beyond. “That’s maybe the main office. Go with Arlo to the units, see if you can get any open. Brad and I will check that out.” They parted ways. He quickly planned the route to the side of the two-story building as the glow from Warren’s light faded, then looked down at Donnie. His own canary in the coal mine for indication of any danger ahead, but the dog just sniffed the ground and trotted alongside.
They quickly marched across the gravel surface of a parking lot, bordered by trailers of all sizes, scanning the darkness and the building alike and slowed when approaching the entrance, the glass of a window and door reflecting what little light there was from the sky. Brad started to move towards them, when Landon flicked his good arm out, stopping the younger man in his tracks.
“What?” Brad’s head flicked left and right across the building, not seeing any obvious danger, but Landon wasn’t looking at that.
“Over there, directly ahead of us, I thought I saw a light in that… caravan.”
Brad strained his eyes to see, but there was only a curved rectangular black block about thirty-feet away, hardly distinguishable from the trees it was enmeshed within. “I don’t see anything.”
“I’m going to check it out. You look inside this place. Look for lights and keys to any vehicles around here.”
Brad looked nervously to the door. “Okay…”
Landon offered him the rifle. “Here.”
