Arthur put the Baby Eagle back in the holster and smiled inwardly at the glare Smith shot his way. Something bugged him about the woman, and when he saw her toss Selena in front of herself for protection, he knew who the other traitor was. Arthur wondered if the bit about her being married was even true.
All they had to do now was find a way out of here. The elevator doors were wide open, but the car wasn’t going anywhere. On top, he knew he would find several repelling ropes and wondered what would be waiting for them in the garage.
Frank walked over with his good arm snugly around Selena, with Smith lagging behind. Arthur pointed his flashlight to help them find their way through the mire of dead bodies littering the floor.
“I guess we get up top and climb?” Arthur asked.
Frank nodded and Arthur entered the small space. He helped Smith up, then Frank who wanted to go before Selena in case there was any danger waiting for them. Smith snorted, but kept the commentary to herself. After Selena was safe, Frank reached down for Arthur and offered his good arm to haul him up.
They secured themselves as best they could, Frank giving them a lesson in how to use the belay system so they wouldn’t fall. He showed them how to pull hard in the opposite direction to brake their fall, and make sure they kept an eye on how much slack they had in the rope.
Arthur took this all in with fear and trepidation. He was the one they were after, and that bitch Smith was working with them. Frank checked the straps and harnesses for the two women, paying more attention to Selena, then sent them on their way.
In seconds, Arthur was ready to go, Frank at his side. When the women were about ten feet above them, Arthur grabbed Frank. “I don’t trust Smith and we have no idea what’s waiting for us up there.”
Frank adjusted a knot. “I know, but we have to get out of here. The place is going to collapse and we’re running out of air time. We need to get somewhere safe.”
“That’s the problem. Where’s safe? This stuff has been leaking for two hours, and we have no idea what kind of damage it’s done.”
Frank shoved him toward the wall. “I don’t have time for this, start climbing.”
Arthur climbed with reluctance. He thought about what to do when armed guards or a mob of cannibalistic military corpses met them at the top. They didn’t have enough ammunition to protect themselves, let alone do any damage. He thought of the items in his backpack and didn’t want to lose what little information he had, so he erred on the side of caution and decided to keep it.
Moments later, they caught up to Smith and Selena and passed them. Frank was climbing with determination even though Arthur knew his arm had to be killing him. When a sliver of light could be seen through the opening, Arthur prepared for the worst.
Frank went first and pulled Arthur out. The garage was empty of vehicles and cars, the door wide open. The first thing Frank did was cross the parking space and hit the button to close the door. Arthur didn’t have to ask why, the half dozen things covered in blood and gore were reason enough.
“There’s power up here?” Arthur asked puzzled.
“They used a different power grid for above ground. Stay here and help the girls. I’m going to go and check out the house,” Frank said.
Arthur waited at the top and used the time to slip a few of the flash drives and one of the samples into interior pockets, just in case. A hand grabbed his foot and he almost shrieked in fear until he realized it was Smith.
He grabbed her by the back of her suit and pulled, not really caring if it caused her any discomfort. “Where’s Selena?”
“How the hell should I know?” Smith snapped.
Arthur kept an eye on her as he shined his flashlight and called out, “Selena, you there?”
“Yeah, just give me a second. I’m a bit more out of shape than I realized,” she huffed.
A second later, Arthur helped her over the edge being as gentle as possible. Two gunshots erupted from inside the house and Arthur motioned the women underneath a worktable in the corner.
“Wait here,” he said.
Arthur walked to the door that he remembered exiting a short while ago, though it felt like an eternity. He pushed it open with the muzzle of his Sig and called out, “Frank, you in here?”
“Yeah, had to take care of a few ‘guards.’”
Arthur entered the living area and saw the bodies of two men on the floor. A third one between them had been ravaged, little of him left. The things picked his bones clean in some areas. Arthur looked away before he threw up when he spotted a trail of what could only be intestines leading to the mouth of one of the others Frank shot.
“Jesus, how many are infected?” Arthur asked.
Frank walked toward the window and responded with a tired sigh, “All of them.”
Arthur joined him and saw a terrifying sight in the yard, if you could call a secret compound that. Dozens of contaminated walking around aimlessly, some of them in uniform, others wore casual attire. The mix was too vast for any other conclusion than the surrounding area was also affected.
“There has to be a way out of here, keys to one of the cars in the driveway?” Arthur thought out loud.
“Sure and go where? Not to mention the masks are going to expire soon. Have a solution for that?”
Arthur kicked his brain into gear. The filter protected them, to change it they needed to take off the mask, remove the old filter, and insert a new one. “I’ll need a mask to practice with, but I might have a solution.”
Frank slapped the table. “Dammit, why didn’t I think of this? Look.” He walked toward where they kept the gear and picked up four packages. “Brand new MSA Advantage 1000, better than a new filter, check them out, I’ll get Smith and Selena.”
Arthur grabbed the masks and prepared them for switching. He unstrapped it and pretended to pull off the old one, then put on and re-strap the new one. These were a bit more complicated than the one he was wearing, and they would have to remove the portion of the suit covering their head. Forty-two seconds, give or take. He’d held his breath the entire time, but would that be enough? What if the microbes or whatever they were, got into his nose and the moment they breathed – infected.
Frank entered the room, trailed by the other two. Smith had a hopeful expression on her face. “Frank said you might have a way to fix the filter issue.”
Arthur nodded as he examined the items in his hand. How to ensure no one was infected, have them exhale, then shove tissue in their nostrils? Not likely to work. Get them into a contained room, like the bathroom and turn on the fan. That would eliminate some of the contaminants.
“I’m not entirely sure this will work, but considering we have less than ten minutes, beggars can’t be choosers and all that,” Arthur said as he grabbed the masks. “Where’s the bathroom?”
“Seriously? At a time like this?” Smith said.
“Shut up, just trust me.” Arthur followed Frank, and when the four of them were in the small room, Arthur shut the door and flipped on the fan.
He took a deep breath and undid the straps. Frank caught the old mask as Arthur ripped it off and pulled the portion of the suit over his head down. He put the new mask on and Frank helped him with the straps.
“Okay, let’s see what happens. If no signs of infection kick in within two or three minutes, you can all do exactly as I did.”
Arthur picked up his old mask and threw it in the toilet. Anything to keep him occupied and hide the pure fear coursing through his veins at the thought of becoming one of the contaminated.
Three minutes passed and nothing happened, so the others followed Arthur’s lead. He watched carefully, and the fact that neither woman needed help with the intricate set of straps set him wondering again.
When they finished, Frank told Smith and Selena about the things outside.
Arthur pushed his way out of the bathroom. Suddenly the thought of everything that happened and about what awaited them was too much.
Frank felt much better. His new mask was free of the chunky dried vomit, but now the doc was having a meltdown. He took a breath and followed him. He knew the scientist was at his wit’s end, but hoped he’d hold up a bit longer. He found him in the kitchen staring into the back area.
Some of the things took notice of them and ambled toward the house. Frank knew they needed an escape plan, and fast, but he also wanted the doc back in the game. “Tough first day, huh?”
Arthur didn’t turn or acknowledge him.
“We have to be strong for them, you know.” Frank motioned toward the living room where Smith and Selena were getting changes of clothes for them and other supplies.
“How are we going to drink or eat anything when we have to keep these masks on all the time? What are we going to do when the entire world is infected and all that’s left is the four of us?” Arthur asked.
“We’ll figure something out. There has to be something to purify the air, or kill the infection so we can breathe. A sealed room of some kind,” Frank argued.
“Right, sealed up tight and impenetrable, just like a silo,” Arthur laughed.
“Look, I don’t have time for you to freak out right now. I’ll knock your ass out or you can be helpful, it’s your call,” Frank warned.
Arthur turned to him and for the first time, Frank saw the anguish in the scientist’s eyes.
“You think this is your fault, don’t you?” Frank asked.
“I have no way to prove that it isn’t. There was an explosion in my lab, and shortly after, people turned into…into…zombies.” Arthur slammed his fist on the table.
“Come on, zombies? Be serious,” Frank scoffed.
“You’ve been thinking it since you saw the first one. We watch movies and read about them, but including them in our reality is a hell of a lot harder to do than people realize. You know as well as I do those things are zombies, plain and simple, and I caused it,” Arthur said in a rushed voice.
“Listen, this whole thing was planned a long time ago. Whatever happened was someone else’s doing. Just move on and put that brain of yours to work and find us a solution to the immediate situation,” Frank said.
Arthur nodded, but stayed in the kitchen. Frank sighed and went into the nook where the surplus equipment was kept. The zombies outside were too close for comfort and he didn’t think the glass would hold back many if they gathered. Most of the stockpile was picked over by the others, but he was able to get a new pair of pants and clean shirt.
He went into one of the bedrooms to change and he heard someone enter behind him, causing his heart to pick up a beat. He glanced back to see Selena. She smiled at him. “Hey, how goes the supply hunting?” he asked, mentally slapping himself for sounding so lame.
“Fine, Smith’s taking care of it. I told her I needed a minute.” She smiled at him, and he could see her eyes crinkle through the mask. For the first time, he thought being alone might not be the best thing for him.
There were things he’d done and wouldn’t tell her of course. But they could have a future. He closed his eyes when she undid the clasps on his armor and slowly undid the buttons on his shirt. He felt his body react to her, as he got aroused. She paid special attention to his injured arm, making sure not to jar it when she took off the vest.
He heard a familiar noise. He placed it a second too late as a knife pierced his heart. His eyes popped open and looked down to see a blade stuck in his chest up to the hilt. His mouth filled with something warm and when he opened it to say something, pink fluids dribbled down his face.
“He told me you’d be hard to win over. I argued that men were easy, all men. Looks like I was right.”
Frank gasped for air as he fell to his knees. He reached, but she skirted his hand.
“Who sent you?” he managed to get out.
She smiled at him and there was no warmth or love. “Simard, of course, you didn’t really think you could help screw him out of his company and not get what you deserve?”
Frank watched her go and the fear of becoming one of them flashed in his mind. Thoughts of revenge went up in smoke, as he felt something cramping in his stomach. He pulled himself across the floor and reached for his holster. The FNP fell out, landing next to him. He gripped it tightly and held it to his head.
No way would he become a zombie.
The shot startled Arthur and he feared the contaminated had breached the house somehow. He checked his Sig and remembered the magazine was empty. He threw his backpack on the counter and searched for a more ammo.
“Dr. Covington, put this on. That suit is disgusting.” Selena tossed him some of the gear from the pile and he gladly pulled the nasty item off his body. Underneath, his pants, shoes, and shirt were in good condition. He pulled on a dark sweatshirt with pockets on it, as well as a bulletproof vest, not that he needed it. He wondered why she gave him one. When her gaze was focused elsewhere, he pulled out the things he stashed in the pockets of his suit and shoved them into the side compartments of the pants he wore.
“You should get rid of the backpack too. It’s covered in…well in people bits,” Selena said.
Frank nodded and dumped the contents into a plastic bag from underneath the sink. He wondered at her casual tone so soon after gunfire, but instinct told him to stay calm.
“Are they in? Is Frank taking care of it? Do we have a plan?” Arthur asked in a rush of words, calm wasn’t his strong suit.
“Don’t worry about any of that. Frank has a way out, and he’s working on it now. He asked us to get the supplies then go to the garage.” Selena grabbed him and tried to pull.
“But the shots, I heard--”
“You worry too much, trust me.”
Something didn’t feel right to Arthur, so he resisted her continued attempts to move him. Backing away from her, he glanced toward the living room for Smith. “Where’s Smith?” Selena refused to answer.
“Smith, can you hear me?” Arthur yelled. No answer.
He backed into the room where he last saw her and looked around. A small pool of blood was forming in front of the couch. He went over and found Smith’s corpse with her neck slit. Selena moved toward him with a sad smile.
“I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, Dr. Covington.”
“Come to what? You’re the traitor? Where’s Frank?”
As if on cue, Frank walked out of the room to Arthur’s delight, though it was short lived when he realized his friend was contaminated – a zombie. His mask was shattered and hanging off in tatters. A hole in the side of his cheek where he must have tried to take his own life – the shot he heard.
Arthur wanted to scream, but fled to the garage instead, not realizing he flew right into Selena’s trap. She was close on his heels and pulled out an M4. She hit the button and Arthur watched as the door opened. “Hand me your gun and make sure you don’t drop the bag. Get in the truck closest to us, Doctor.”
“Are you nuts? I’m not going without my gun,” Arthur insisted.
“Give me the damn gun, I’ll cover you.” Selena fired at one of the zombies and the body fell to the ground causing another one to trip.
Arthur did as told, while she took out any zombie near him. He saw a black bag stowed in the foot well by the passenger side seat. He reached over as she made her way to the truck. When he peered inside, he saw a collection of samples. He watched as she slithered into the car and tossed him the keys.
“We’re going to take a ride to meet my boss. I’m sure you’ll like him, seeing as how he went to all this effort just for you,” she said.
“I don’t buy it, where did you get that bag from?” Arthur used his chin to indicate the bag at her feet.
Selena looked at it with surprise, and then smiled when she saw the contents. “Wonderful, we thought we’d have to rely on the small amount you stole. This will make my boss very happy.”
“You’re not the least bit suspicious of them sitting right there for you?” Arthur asked incredulously.
“No, several people were sent in to get the rocks and retrieve you. Someone came out and well… they died, or whatever.” She motioned to the zombies collecting around the car.
Arthur looked at them. A woman with an apron ambled around with a bone in her mouth. A man in blood soaked overalls sat on the ground eating the liver of a masked guard. The world had gone to hell and he was supposed to believe what this woman said to him? She was out for herself, just like everyone else he’d met today.
Arthur laughed at her, “You’ve got to be kidding. I could have died in the explosion, been eaten by one of the zombies, killed on the Level 8 debacle. Your boss had no intentions when it came to me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You were always with one of us. In the lab someone pulled you out of the way. You always had protection with Smith around, and we knew about your history with weaponry. You’re right about Level 8 though. We’ll investigate that thoroughly to find out who was behind it and act accordingly.”
Arthur started the car and flipped through the news stations to see if there was any information available. Bursts of static greeted him at every turn. A loud siren-like sound was on others and one repeated the same message.
“At this time, we have everything under control. Please remain in your homes and wait for someone to contact you.”
Arthur gave up and stared in the rear-view mirror, unsure of what to do next. “Um, what’s your plan from here?”
Selena looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “Run the damn things over, I don’t care.”
Putting the vehicle into reverse, he did as told. The sound of groans mixed with the thumps and bumps of things hitting the undercarriage of the car made his stomach churn. The driveway was about a mile long and once they reached the end, the true horror of what happened hit him. The protective gate was open. The bodies of the guards working the admission booth were on the ground and a pack of zombies tearing into them. Strands of flesh and bits of stringy muscle spread out among them. Arthur imagined it as a feast fit for a dining table in hell.
As he followed Selena’s directions, Arthur found himself getting more comfortable with the term zombie. He also absorbed the extent of the outbreak. The town streets were packed with car accidents, arms and legs strewn about, along with the occasional head and torso. Not a single living person in sight. Arthur wondered how long it would take to reach a global scale.
“Damn it, I can’t get a signal.” Selena snapped her phone shut.
“Where are we heading?” Arthur asked.
“Just follow this road until I tell you to do something else. I’m in charge here.”
He didn’t need to be a genius to know that whatever Selena was planning on, wasn’t working out as she’d expected. Her backups were now zombies. The silo trashed. The roads and city were nothing but roaming corpses. Arthur thought about this new world and hoped there was something they could do about it. He saw a sign with some no name county in Indiana.
They needed to get to the CDC, give them the information he had along with the samples, so they could start working on a cure. With Selena in charge, that was unlikely to occur.
“Why did you leave the others alive? That was beyond cruel,” Arthur said to get her talking, and to get his focus off the death around them.
“What do you care, both of them had orders to kill you or bring you in. No matter what way you look at it, I’m the one who actually had your best interest at heart. The minute Sunset Inc. realized there was an outbreak, you became collateral damage,” Selena explained.
“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have been the least bit kind. After all, Frank did save your life,” Arthur argued.
Selena snickered, “Are you kidding me? I was doing fine on my own until he showed up. The guy was an idiot.”
“He cared about you.”
“That was his mistake. Now shut up and drive.”
Arthur let the wheels in his mind continue to work for the next few minutes. When they reached a turn off for an airport, Selena told he to take it. After another five minutes, they pulled up to an airstrip. The place appeared abandoned, zombies in flight suits roamed around.
“Go to the hangar over there, number seven,” Selena said.
Arthur obeyed, hiding his surprise when the doors opened and several armed men came out. They pulled him and Selena out of the car roughly.
“Are you infected? Have you been bitten or otherwise in contact with them?” A guard asked.
Arthur shook his head, as did Selena. A man in an impeccable grey suit came out and eyed them.
“As usual, Selena, your work is above all others. Dr. Covington, a pleasure to meet you. I think you’ll enjoy the new lab we have set up for you as we work together to determine what is in those rocks.”
“What? Who are you? We need to warn the rest of the world and work on a cure,” Arthur countered.
The man chuckled, “How noble of you, wanting to rid the world of the pandemic you created. Unfortunately, I am not concerned with a cure for anyone but myself.”
Arthur opened his mouth to say something when he felt a sharp pain in his back and he fell to the ground.
Selena’s face came into his line of sight. “Do as he says and you’ll live. This is a new world now, thanks to you.”
Arthur wanted to scream, but he felt consciousness slip away from him.
What had he done?