A Glimpse Of Decay (Book 1): Red Storm) (13 page)

Pavlov, still in the lobby, turned to run but was blindsided by the woman who had just been shot.  She too had been able to get back up to her feet and was moving considerably faster than the male assailant.  She tackled Pavlov, sprawling him out on the hard floor.  He was able to grab her wrists and push her away as she tried to scratch at his face.  He was about to bring up his right knee to knock her off of him when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right calf.  He looked down, and to his horror, he saw a small child holding onto his leg and chewing on it.  Pavlov loosened his grip on the woman as he reached down to push the child away.  The woman responded by screaming and shrieking and pounding her fists into his face.  The blows shattered his nose and busted his lips.

The doctor began to lose consciousness as the small boy now gnawed on his hip.  His eyes were beginning to swell shut, but just as he was about to slip into darkness, he saw numerous people running past him. Some were screaming in fear and some were shrieking in a phlegm-filled rant.  The sound of breaking glass was everywhere and more gunfire was coming from the street.  He then shuddered in terror as he saw Anargul standing over him.  Streaks of black vomit and blood ran down from the corners of her mouth; her red hair was matted with it.   Her eyes, covered in a white pasty film, gazed down upon him.  She knelt down next to him, placing her hands on his chest.  Her mouth opened wide and she lowered her jaws over his right eye.  He felt his eyeball pop and his bones crack as her teeth dug down into his orbital socket.  He let out a weakened scream as the sounds in the room began to echo in his ears.  She raised her head up and swallowed the pulp that was once his eye.  She then bent down again and sank her teeth deep into his right pectoral muscle.  As she tore off a large chunk of flesh from his chest, Pavlov’s vision mercifully faded out.

***

Roberts looked down onto the street below him.  The scene was chaotic as the effects of the epidemic gripped the city.  Several abandoned cars littered the roadway in front of the hospital and half a dozen bodies were strewn amongst the autos.  Two armored police vehicles slowly weaved their way through the carnage as they rumbled towards the northern side of the city.  The drivers made no attempt to avoid rolling over the bodies with their large, oversized tires.  A loud explosion filled the air with a heavy thud and a black plume of smoke began to rise from somewhere out on the edge of the town.

As Roberts took in the gruesome images, a loud shrill from behind his back startled him, making him flinch as it caught him off guard.  The woman who was strapped to the gurney was violently thrashing about as she tried to break her restraints.  Over Mamani’s objections, Massimov was ordering that they transport her to Astana in hopes of studying her and the infection. 

Major Roberts, Irene, Michael and the Kazakhstan doctors were standing next to the helipad on the roof of the hospital.  Massimov anxiously looked up into the sky as he searched for the helicopter.

“Where is that fucking helicopter?” Massimov shouted, craning his neck as he continued to scan the horizon.  It was obvious that he was frightened, especially knowing that the hospital below had been overrun.  He was fighting to keep his mind clear of thoughts of the helpless patients being attacked and murdered in their sickbeds.  He also couldn’t keep from wondering what was going to happen to all those who were being killed.  Were they going to rise again, just like the lady on the gurney had done?

“Don’t worry, they can’t get up here,” Mamani said in a sarcastic tone.  “You’re safe up here, unlike all those poor patients below us who are probably being slaughtered in their beds.  And not to mention Doctor Pavlov and his staff.”

“There was nothing we could do!” Massimov countered.  “It was imperative that we secured this subject for transport to the facility in Astana.  You know we didn’t have the time to do anything else.  Besides, Pavlov chose to stay.”

A closer explosion shook the building and interrupted their discussion.  The guard from the supply room and the guard who had been protecting the entrance to the lab trotted over to the edge of the building where Roberts was standing.  They too wanted to see what was taking place down below.  Roberts looked over at one of them and said, “I don’t know if you understand English, but aren’t you glad you aren’t down there right now?”

“Yes, I do understand English,” one of the guards said.  His accent was heavy but Roberts understood his flat tone clearly.  “I just regret that one of my comrades was left behind down below.”

Roberts turned and walked back to where Irene and Michael were standing.  Irene was getting over her initial shock and the reality of what was taking place was starting to sink in.  “What were you talking about down there?” she asked.

“Follow me,” Roberts said as he motioning with his head.  He walked away from the group, making sure no one could hear what he was about to say to his colleagues.  He was trying to be careful in not offending any of the Kazakhs, but he wanted to be able to talk to Michael and Irene without anyone else hearing.  As the two walked up next to Roberts, he gave a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure that they weren’t being followed.

“What’s this ‘reanimation’ shit you’re talking about?” Michael asked in a strained voice.  His eyes were wide with terror.

“For God’s sake, keep your voices down,” Roberts scolded as he looked back at Massimov and Mamani and the others.  “We can’t be yelling this stuff out loud for everyone to hear.”

“Okay,” Irene said in a hushed voice as she gestured with her hands.  “What’s going on?  And don’t give us one of those cryptic government responses either.”

Roberts stepped closer to the two and in a serious tone, he said, “What I’m going to tell you is strictly confidential.  This is not allowed to go beyond this little circle.”

“Enough with the secret agent bullshit,” Michael quipped.  “Just tell us what’s going on.”

“Well, I’m sure the both of you are aware that our patient over there was clinically dead.”  He nodded towards the screaming woman on the gurney.  “The problem with that is…well…she came back.  So, she’s dead, but she’d not dead.  She’s currently in a state of reanimation.”

“Reanimation?”  Michael looked over at Irene and shook his head.  “That’s what you call it?”  He cackled and then aggressively stepped up to Roberts’ face, pointing a finger at his forehead.  “That bitch is dead.  Or at least she was.  Now she’s a fucking zombie.  That’s what I call it!”

Roberts calmly brushed aside Michael’s angry gesture.  “This isn’t some sci-fi movie.  We’re dealing with years of research here…on both parts, ours’ and the Russians’.  This is a military matter, not some b-grade movie.  That woman over there is a weapon and we have to find a way to defeat it, but more importantly, we have to find out how it started, how it’s transmitted, and how to prevent it from spreading.  You can’t simplify this by calling her a zombie.”

“Then kindly explain to me what reanimation means?” Irene asked.

“Well, we don’t have a firm grasp on the whole concept—”

“That’s obvious!” Michael interrupted.

“It would be nice if you stopped interrupting me.” Roberts sighed and shook his head.  “Throughout the years in the bio warfare division, there were attempts to create a mind-altering agent that would cause mass hysteria in the civilian populace by inducing people to act out in rage and violence.  Those infected would become very disruptive to their communities.  The main goal of our research was to ensure that even if the infected subject died or was killed, the agent would be able revive the host.  The rage and hostility that an infected person would have felt just prior to death would be engrained in the brain at the time of revival, or as we call it, reanimation.  That rage and anger would be the drive or motivation for the revived host, coupled with the basic desire to feed.  From the looks of everything going on right now, the Russians were able to beat us in the race to reanimate.”

“You mean the Russians have discovered how to raise the dead?” Irene asked in disbelief.

“Not raise the dead in a biblical sense, more like a revival after death has been legally declared.”

“Like a zombie, just like in the fucking movies!” Michael said.

“No, not like that at all,” Roberts grunted, “more like a tool, an instrument of warfare.”

“You mean to tell me we were working on this too?” Irene asked.

Roberts looked at Irene and cupped his hands over his eyes in frustration, slowly rubbing them up and over his forehead. “Yes, we were working on the same thing.  We were close, but we had a difficult time keeping the vital organs functioning after reanimation.”

“You’re kidding. Right?”  Irene shook her head in disbelief.  “Please tell me you’re kidding.  We haven’t actually brought someone back from the dead, have we?”

“On a couple of occasions,” Roberts said, grinning.  “We had several subjects at Plum Island, but they didn’t survive.”

“Wait a minute, did you say Plum Island?” Michael asked.  “I’ve spent countless hours there working on Mad Cow, but I never heard anything about what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you didn’t hear anything about this,” Roberts said, laughing.  “This is top secret.  You think this stuff is out in the open?  This is ‘basement’ type shit that no one could ever know about.  Believe me, if these doctors here knew that we had any knowledge of this, they’d turn us over to the military and they’d be squeezing your nut sack to make you talk.  Then they’d kill you.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually hearing this,” Irene muttered.

“Believe it.  The quicker you do, the better you’ll be prepared to handle what’s coming our way.”

“So then what are we going to do?” Michael asked, rubbing his hands together in a nervous gesture.

“Well, as soon as we hit the ground, I’ll make contact with the Army Infectious Disease Institute and see what they want us to do.  Right now we are under orders to return several specimens back to Dietrich.  I really don’t see that changing.”

Michael looked at Roberts with wide-eyed disbelief.  “You’re not serious, are you?”

“I’m dead serious.”

“And just how do you expect to get one of those things back to the States?”

“Once we get to Astana, we’ll arrange for a transport to fly in and pick us up.”

“So you’re saying that we’re going to pack up this lady and head back to the U.S.?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“And you don’t think that we will be endangering the country by taking this into our borders?” Irene asked.

“It’s the only thing we can do.  We need to make sure we’re prepared in case more of this shit makes it over to the U.S.  We need to make sure we can protect ourselves from this.”

“For some reason, I really don’t think your intentions are that noble,” Irene countered with a sarcastic tone.  “I think you came over here looking to confirm if the Russians did indeed have this wonder weapon, and now you’re going to take it back home and capitalize on it.”

“You know, ever since we touched down in-country, you guys have fought me all the way,” Roberts barked.  “You haven’t done one fucking thing to help with this, not one goddamned thing.  We’ve been here for almost a week already and all you’ve contributed is a bunch of bullshit.  I don’t need to remind you that we are over here to protect our country.  It sucks that you two had to be the unlucky ones to come over here with me, but you’re two of the leading people in your fields.  I’m asking for your help, not your panic.”

The setting sun was starting to cast everything in long shadows and the dimming light was beginning to work on everyone’s nerves.  Michael was feeling vulnerable, and although he knew that the roof was secure, he was sure that at any moment the roof door was going to burst wide open and hundreds of murderous zombies were going to rip him to shreds.  Beads of sweat were forming on his brow and he tried to blink them away as they rolled down into his eyes.

“I really think we need to get home and just let these people deal with whatever it is that’s happening here,” Michael lamented.  “There’s nothing we can do anymore.  It’s too late.”

Several more explosions startled the group on the roof.  This time they were closer, just a few blocks away, and fire was consuming a nearby residential area.  Mamani walked over to the edge of the roof and looked out at the carnage.  After a few moments, she could no longer stand to witness the ongoing disaster and she turned, noticing Roberts, Irene and Michael all engaged in an animated discussion.  Curious, as well as suspicious, she walked over to them.  When Roberts saw her approaching, he hushed his partners and walked towards her.

“I guess we can safely say that this has spread beyond Kostanay,” she grumbled to the major.

Roberts eyed his compatriots, conveying to them to remain silent about what they had just been talking about.

“It kind of looks that way,” the major said.  “What’s got me puzzled are all the explosions.  What’s going on out there?”

“The explosions?”  Mamani smiled and looked out into the distance, shaking her head in disappointment.  “Those explosions are this country’s failed attempt at containment.”  Roberts looked over at her with a confused look on his face.  “As soon as we heard about the outbreak in Ozersk, the government put a plan together to try to prevent any spread into our country.  The president moved some of the Army north towards the border, but he did it in secrecy because he didn’t want to provoke our Russian brothers, seeing as they were bombing everything around Ozersk and Kyshtym.  The air force has been ordered to fire bomb the affected areas if the Army can’t contain this.”