by Maxey, Phil
Rifle shots echoed in the distance.
Arlo placed a hand on the glass. “Maybe…”
Landon sighed. “There’s nothing we can—”
Something banged up against the door making them both jump. Donnie looked up at them, scraping at the glass. Landon pulled the cart back, opening the door.
“Look!” said Arlo, pointing at the nearby car. Tracy was inside, waving them towards her. The headlights came on, flickering.
Landon turned to the store behind. “Kids! We’re leaving! Get out here!”
“You think we can trust her?” said Arlo.
“We got no choice, we need to leave.” He pulled the door all the way open. “Help me get this cart up.”
As they lifted it, Agatha appeared from the shadows, walking cautiously towards them. The others following.
“Get this stuff in the car!” said Landon to Arlo, while turning to the kids. “Come on, quick! Everyone into the car!”
They ran to Tracey’s car as the engine idled. Landon followed behind, glancing at Warren’s body, then out into the darkness to the far side of the lot and the hint of a crashed pickup. There was no sign of a creature, but he could feel it was close. Watching, waiting…
He ran to Arlo, helping him throw the items into the trunk, then jumped in alongside Tracey, the others doing the same in the back.
Helen screamed while Donnie barked, the small dog up at the back window.
Tracey floored the gas, the car jolting forward as she steered around Warren, turning in a wide circle, heading for the exit and the nearby road.
“I see it!” shouted Arlo. “It’s on—”
The car screeched to a halt as Tracey slammed on the breaks, a bloodied Brad collapsed onto the hood. Landon immediately jumped out, running forward and helped the young man into the back as Arlo and the three kids scrunched up to the left. He didn’t need to look back, for he could already smell the stench from what was scampering towards them. He jumped in, the car moving before he landed fully in the passenger’s seat and pulled the door closed.
“It’s gaining!” shouted Arlo.
The car bumped up over the curb, trying to gain traction on mud covered grass, then skidded back onto the highway, accelerating away.
Arlo let out a breath. “Yeah… I think we left it…” He looked at the man next to him, and the blood smeared across his face and jacket.
Brad forced a smile. “I’m going to need someone to help me do some stitches.”
Landon nodded, then as he turned back to the front was a hit by a thought. He looked to the driver. “Wait, where’s the vaccine?”
Tracey reached down then held up a small blue box.
He eagerly took it, looking it over the once then passed it back to a cautious Arlo. “You need to get that open before we find Sam and Josh.”
The gamer looked down at the scratched blue box. “Right…”
“Where to?” said Tracey.
Landon pulled out a small black plastic box and flipped its lid. A needle spun a little then settled. “Back on the highway then west…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
12:01 a.m. Biochron headquarters.
Jess looked at Lucas, asleep or unconscious, she wasn’t sure which, but his wounds had stopped bleeding, there was that.
Gregg nodded towards him. “So he’s the guy that made all this stuff happen?”
She was standing at the bottom of a gurney, one of three in the small medical room with the older man. Outside in the corridor, thirteen other former inmates and a soldier waited for their next move.
“Partly… maybe. But… there’s someone else that truly caused it. A scientist.”
Gregg scoffed. “Might’ve known.”
The door opened and Scott came in, closing it behind. “We can’t stay here forever. Only a matter of time before the things figure out a way into this part of the level.” He glanced at the CEO. “Can’t you jab him with adrenaline or something?”
“Even if I had some, that’s not going to make him give us the code to the surface. And if we try and move him right now. He might die of his injuries. He might have internal bleeding…”
“So he might die anyway? And then we’re stuck down here… Great.”
“I’m sorry about, Alana…”
He looked at Jess then away. “She knew the risks.”
“Are you sure there’s not another way out of here?”
“There were… are… we tried them. This was going to be the last, best hope. And it would have been, if he was still conscious.”
A knock came at the door which then opened. Iris appeared in the gap. “Umm… we are wondering when we’re going to be leaving?”
Jess looked at those in the room with her, then walked to the door. “I should talk to everybody.”
“Oh. Okay.” Iris stepped back as Jess emerged into the corridor. All conversations stopped and everyone looked at her.
“There is a way to the surface…” A ripple of excitement moved around the onlookers. “But… the exit… the door at the top of the stairwell, requires a special code… which we don’t have…”
“Well, where is it?” said a tall, skinny man.
“It’s not a where, but a who. The man in the room behind me, the one who was badly injured has it. And he won’t give it to us, unless he is able to leave… and right now, that’s not happening.”
The man turned away in frustration as heads fell.
A thirty something woman with a ponytail stepped forward. “So, that’s it? We have to wait here until those monsters come for us?”
“No. He’ll be conscious soon, and when he is, we’ll carry him with us up top, and leave. I’m sure it won’t be too long… Please, save your energy. We’ll need it when we get out of this place.”
“Where are we going once we do?” said the man.
“I’m heading east, back to where we were taken on the highway. I have to find my husband and kids. You’re welcome to come with me… but there’s something else you should all know.” She played with the idea of telling them, that they were not as immune as they all thought. They deserved to know, but causing mass panic was the last thing needed right now. “The creatures are attracted to you, because you are immune…”
“Uh?” said more than one.
“What you mean?” said the ponytailed woman.
“Maybe it’s pheromones. I don’t know, but the creatures are drawn to those that are immune. They will come for all of you over the next three days, but there is strength in numbers…”
Murmurs drifted between the group, but no one fully responded. Jess forced a smile then moved back into the room.
*****
1:13 a.m.
Jess’s eyes were heavy, her mind a mixture of pleasant and horrifying images. A noise made her abruptly lift her head, but she was met by disappointment, because Lucas was still sleeping. Scott closed the door behind him. He walked forward with a pained expression. “We gotta wake him! The noises beyond the door to the staff room are getting louder. They know we’re in here! If they make a concerted effort to get through that door, our two guns aren’t going to stop them!”
I’ll be okay… because I’m like th—
She shook the thought out of her head and looked at Lucas. “If I wake him, and he refuses to give us the code…”
Scott let out a frustrated breath, then walked to the nearby gurney and took off his gloves.
“What you doing?”
He unbuttoned his body armor, then jacket and pulled out a small bottle which she recognized. “Last one,” he said holding it up. He nodded towards the bag near her feet. “But I’m guessing you got a few weeks’ supply in there.” She looked away as he unscrewed the lid and swallowed the bottle’s contents. “Your family… They got the vaccine?” She shook her head. “Ah…”
“I don’t want to wait any longer down here as well, but if we move him, he might slip into a coma and never—”
There was commotion o
utside. They both looked at each other then Scott quickly redid his armor and placed his gloves back on.
A knock came at the door, which then opened. The sound of coughing came with it.
“He’s changing!” shouted a woman from the corridor.
Scott pulled the door open, Jess behind him. The tall man from earlier was at the far end, alone, bent over, trying to talk between coughs.
“I ain’t changing!” He blurted out.
“Yeah he is!” said a younger woman. “I seen it. This is how it starts!”
Gregg scrunched his face. “He’s immune! He’s not going to change into anything!”
“Shoot him!” shouted another woman.
The soldier frowned. “I ain’t shooting him!” Then walked cautiously forward. “How you feeling? It’s Clay, right?”
The tall man coughed while nodding. “I just got a bit of a cold… had it… a few days… before… all this… started… I ain’t a monster!”
Scott looked back to the others. “You see, he’s just—”
Jess had already had her hand on her MP5, when she saw the protrusions sprout from the back of the man’s back, and by time his eyes had rolled to the back of his head, all of which happened in a matter of seconds, she had fired, putting a volley of bullets into his skull. He promptly collapsed on the floor, newly formed parts of him still quivering.
Scott whirled around, his own weapon now ready to be fired. He swore, while backing away from the mess at the end of the corridor.
Jess lowered her gun. She had become Isiah…
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
2:00 a.m.
Jess handed the small bottle to the woman with the ponytail, who gulped the clear liquid, giving it right back.
She didn’t seem to want to stand up from the side of the gurney she was sat on.
“Are you okay, Rachel?” said Jess.
Rachel nodded. “Just… one thing after another. You know? When all this… started, and everyone changed, but I didn’t? It was like winning some kind of messed-up lottery… I hated being the one that would have to keep going, but then… I got to keep going… and now… even that was a lie…”
Jess placed her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “There are just about three day’s left until this nightmare is over. We get through to that day, then we can start… to think about how to start again. That’s—” She briefly smiled. “— Something to hope for.”
Rachel nodded and stood. She went to leave, but stopped, looking back at the bag on the gurney. “Right now, everyone outside has had the vaccine, but when it stops working again in a day’s time…” Jess nodded. She understood what the older woman was saying. Rachel left as Scott came in, closing the door behind him.
He nodded towards the bag. “How much you got left?”
“Enough.” It was a lie. Jess had done the sums. If she wanted enough supply for her family and Meg to last another few days, then those outside were going to have to go without.
“Yeah well, I’d keep that stuff well protected. Some of those—” He nodded to the door. “— will take it from you.”
“They are still immune. The vaccine will last longer in them. Probably the full time remaining.” She had no idea if that was true, but it was a good story to tell.
“They might not believe that…”
A heavy knock came from the door.
He sighed. “Now what…” He pulled it open to Gregg, an anxious look on his face. “You better come.” Scott followed Gregg outside, Jess went to follow, but then looked back at the bag. She pulled it over her shoulder and moved outside, moving past worried looking individuals, running to catch up with the soldier. She moved through a doorway, turning a corner and before entering the next corridor, heard the problem. The secure, metal door at the end, the one they had escaped through hours earlier was rattling with the impacts from the other side.
Scott looked back at her. “We got maybe, ten, twenty minutes before it fails.”
She let out a sigh then nodded, turned and ran all the way back to the medical room, ignoring requests for information from those standing around. Moving into the small room, she rushed to the basin, filling a nearby cup with water then moved to the bed. She looked at the bandages covering Lucas’s various lacerations, and the off color of his skin, then leaned forward and gently shook his shoulder.
He groaned, but his eyes remained closed, so she tried again. The noise outside was increasing. People were starting to panic, already running for the other stairwell.
“Lucas!”
His eyes slowly opened as he grimaced.
“What’s the door code! People are going to die!”
He tried swallowing. “Water…”
She held the beaker to his mouth, pouring a little.
“Lucas! Code?”
He tried to push himself up, but groaned and fell back. “Get… me… to… door…”
“If I—”
The door behind her flew open. “They’re breaking through!” said Scott. “Time to go!” He looked at the man lying in the bed. “I’ll help you with—”
In one swift movement, Jess placed a hand beneath Lucas’s chest and hoisted him up and over her shoulder. Scott stood, mouth open.
“I’m strong. Get over it.” She picked her gun up and ran outside. The corridor was empty. Human sounds came from her left, non-human to her right.
Scott ran towards the latter. “Get everyone upstairs, I’ll hold them back as long as I can.”
Jess nodded to him and turned, carrying the wounded man, her bag and gun through the doorway, as gunfire erupted from behind. Shouts and arguments were already breaking out, four floors above.
As she scurried up the stairs, roars and screeches echoed out the corridor at the bottom between bursts of shots. She arrived at the top floor, a little out of breath and propped up Lucas near the gray door. “You’re here! Code, Lucas!”
He sheepishly turned his head towards the small silver box with a keypad, and attempted to lift his arm but instead grimaced, dropping it to his side. The clatter of the battle below was growing closer.
“They’re in the stairwell!” shouted someone behind Jess, but her focus was on the man in front, whom all their lives depended on.
She lifted his hand, ignoring his grumbles of pain and placed his fingers on the nine buttons. “Press the buttons, Lucas!”
His digits started applying pressure as Scott ran up the final stairs, shooting behind.
People were screaming and Jess didn’t hear the clunk that came from the door, but she saw the green light appear on the box, and immediately barged the door open to cooler air.
“Come on!” she shouted to those behind, while picking Lucas up. The fourteen souls stumbled through the doorway, she being the last, and with her spare hand, slammed the door closed.
The new space was a wide corridor, with coats and uniforms hanging on hooks above benches. Without stopping she followed the others to the door at the end that Scott had already opened. Slowly stepping through the doorway, she looked across the large garage and the SWAT like vehicle sat against the far wall. The people were already running towards it.
“I got the key,” said Scott, by her side. “Where we heading?”
It was a question she had no true answer for. She never thought she would live this long. “Umm…” A strange idea came to her. “My apartment is just a few miles north of here.”
“The cities are pretty full of those things. Denver will be no different.”
“No…” The sound coming from Lucas’s mouth surprised them both and she lowered him to the floor. He looked up at her. “You got anymore of that water?”
She shook her head.
“We need to head, south…” He winced. She noticed his bandages were already covered in spots of red.
“What’s south?” said Scott.
“There’s a ship. Gulf of Mexico. Think of it as a virus free zone. It’s where the government and top military are. They send a boat to
the shore at Houston daily. Or that was the plan. If we go, I can get us on that ship.” He half twisted his neck, gesturing at those already on the armored vehicle behind. “Even take them as well. But if I don’t make it… no one’s getting onboard.” He briefly smiled. “Security clearance and all that.”
“Reckon no one’s going to be going with you,” said Gregg who had walked over from the truck.
Jess nodded. “You kidnaped and imprisoned all of them.”
Lucas painfully shook his head, gritting his teeth. “No! That wasn’t me! That was Rackham. How many times I got to say it!” He half turned to Gregg. “The ship will take all of you. But if you want to wander the streets of Denver trying not to become food for the things. Your choice.”
The older man frowned.
“You should go,” said Jess to him.
“You really think we should trust him?”
“No—” Lucas frowned. “— But I think he’s telling you the truth about the ship.”
Gregg nodded.
“Where you going then?” said Scott.
“East. Find my family.”
Lucas strained then gave up trying to stand. He looked at Scott. “Could do with a little help.”
“Wait,” said Scott, keeping his attention on Jess. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you don’t know if your family are still…” It was obvious his argument wasn’t going to work. Instead he smiled, holding his hand out.
Jess returned the smile, first reaching into her pocket, then lightly grasped his hand. He paused, then nodded, placing his hand in his own pocket before turning to Lucas. “Right then. Lets get going.” He looked back to her. “I hope you find them.”
A few moments later the thunderous engine of the heavy truck was filling the garage and she watched it drive through the opening and into the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
3:12 a.m.
The flashlight she found in the garage was powerful. Perhaps too much so, for it produced a beam of almost solid light. She switched it off. Her eyes had already adjusted and she knew the route from Biochron to her home anyway, having driven it hundreds of times.
