A Zombie Survival Series (Book 1): Infestation Iowa (15 page)

              “Not possible…” David said opening his eyes. “You’re right.” David looked out the window at the city. Destiny still stood beside him. She reached for his hand and held it tightly. David turned to her and looked into her eyes. He still felt the spark even after everything that had happened. He looked to Holiday who was back several feet at this point, almost half the room away.

“Holiday come back here!” Destiny shouted at him. “David aint gonna hurt nobody, you know that.” Destiny shook her head in disappointment as Holiday slinked back towards David slowly.

“I have to go to the cabin.” David said looking back out the window. “If they will ignore me I need to know for sure what is going on from my father.” Holiday raised his hand and placed it on David’s shoulder. David moved his head quickly pretending to bite it. Holiday yelped and snapped his hand away. Destiny and David started laughing loudly as Holiday slowly joined in. After the moment had died down, David spoke again. “I don’t know about controlling them, that sounds stupidly insane, but they could very well be ignoring me.” David was convinced his father was completely insane and mistook the zombies ignoring him for control over them.

“Feeling left out?” Holiday said as he smirked about David being ignored by the zombies.

“A little.” David replied giving him a similar smirk.

“If we go with you …” Destiny said looking up at David. “They won’t ignore us, will they?” She looked at the floor sadly. She knew he would have to go alone.

“I will be back once I get the immunity or cure and everything will get sorted out.” He kissed the top of her head and began walking to the elevator. “Stay here. It’s the safest red dot on that map afterall!” He shouted as the elevator doors opened, letting out a few more scientists and doctors onto the floor. David entered the empty elevator and pressed the ground floor button. Holiday and Destiny waived goodbye as the elevator door slid closed and he descended toward the ground.

Chapter 13 – End Thy Name is David

The elevator opened on the ground level revealing the giant front room of the building. Scientists and doctors rushed around as small groups of military men stood guard at the front door and the elevators. David walked forward into the room; the guards looked at him once and then looked away. Ellen had obviously told them he was O.K. to walk around before she had died. David walked to the front door and peered outside through the revolving glass doors. Things looked differently from the ground level, he couldn’t see much past the Humvees or fences and the sandbags made it even harder. He walked through the rotating door and emerged outside. It was colder outside then he had expected. The sun was slowly lowering in the horizon; it had obviously been a few hours since David was last at his house. He felt the night would never come. The cold was proof that soon it would be dark but David didn’t care. If he was immune and invisible to the creatures then he could pass freely across the city to the log cabin his father was waiting at.

David rushed up to a small group of Humvees that looked like it might be a way through the perimeter. Straight in front of the building, the fences opened and sandbags parted as a large group of military men pointed guns off into the city.

“I have to go out there!” David yelled towards the men as he headed for the opening.

“Nobody leaves into the city without permission.” One of the guards said to him as they walked in front of him and raised a hand up to stop him.

“I – I have permission.” He said stuttering slightly.

“From who?” The guard asked, skeptical of David. David thought quickly and answered the only thing he could think of.

“Doctor Ellen Page - founder of Trinity Corp.” He said looking around at the men. The guard lowered his hand and stared at David.

“Look we don’t have time to check, you really wanna go out there fine.” The guard said, moving to the side as David smiled. He walked past the guard and neared the fence.  “We won’t be able to let you in without clearance after you leave.”  David stopped and turned towards the guard giving a quick nod. He rushed through the opening and headed off into the city towards the forest.

It was about five blocks until he would reach the cabin. David looked around at the destruction he passed. Bullet holes riddled everything he could see. Bodies were lying almost everywhere. Some bodies were intact but most were missing limbs and even heads. Ahead of him he saw a gigantic Beast like the one he had faced earlier, but this one had deteriorated badly over time and looked like it had been dead for a day or two. David continued down the middle of the road not seeing any movement of zombies or Beasts. It was almost too quiet for him. He wished Destiny was with him or Holiday. He remembered conversations they had with him or bickering or just chuckling together. It comforted him a little but not enough to help his feeling of being completely alone. Ahead of him, a zombie bolted around the corner towards him. David froze, terrified and pulled out his massive pistol ready to fire. The zombie got close very fast and just as David was about to shoot, he thought of something else to try. David lowered his gun and walked to a destroyed car on the sidewalk. He leaned up against it as the zombie ran pass, it clearly had not seen him. David whistled sharply toward the zombie but it ignored him completely and continued running down the middle of the road toward the Trinity building. He watched as gunfire erupted from the guards. The zombie fell head-first, smashing into the ground. David began to believe his father’s words. At least, he was beginning to believe his words about the immunity making him invisible. David continued to walk down the road as more than thirty zombies came around the corner. They moved slower than the last one and again headed down the middle of the road toward David. David continued walking, the moans and disfigured faces of the zombies caused him to wince slightly as he walked into the group. The zombies pushed around him but didn’t make any threatening moves toward him. He smiled and laughed at a few zombies brushing past him but they didn’t respond to him. He raised his massive pistol and fired a shot into the head of one of the zombies. Its head nearly exploded and splashed a few nearby zombies with blood. The one he shot fell to the ground dead, as the others continued moving forward. David sighed loudly, relieved to have such a massive advantage. He started thinking about how everyone would benefit from this cure. How humanity might stand a chance with it and all he had to do was convince his now power-hungry father to do the right thing. Then a thought flashed through David’s mind. His father was responsible for this outbreak; David may have to hurt him - or worse - to get the cure. David thought about how it might happen; what he would do and if he even could. He had dreamed of being reunited with his parents for so long, he doubted he could shoot them. He didn’t know how his mother was doing through all of this, or if she was even at the cabin. David grew angry at the thought that she may have wanted to do the right thing but his father wouldn’t let her. She was always a very gentle person and loved life whenever she could. But she did follow his father with whatever he said. David’s thoughts were not helping him feel better, and the guessing was only making him feel angrier towards his father.

He neared the end of the group of zombies when they all stopped moving towards the Trinity building. David cleared the group of zombies and continued walking forward, thinking about his father and how, if he had hurt Mother, he would pay. David glanced behind him at the group of zombies he had just walked through; they were now turned around and following David. David stopped and wondered why they changed direction and as he stood in wonder the group of zombies suddenly stopped also. David began thinking about his father again and how he wanted to hurt him if he had hurt Mother. The zombies began moving again, faster this time, toward David. David started to think it was possible he was willing them toward the forest behind him…toward his father! David looked to the side of the street at a broken down store. He focused the anger he felt toward his father and projected it toward the store. The zombies lunged to the side, attacking the store and wailing on the walls. They broke the window on the front and started crawling inside.

“You have to be kidding me,” David said as he now believed what his father said. David had willed them to attack the store. More zombies came from around another corner. Some were fast ones, others were slow and some were even crawling on the ground missing a leg or two. They began heading toward the store also snarling and moaning. David shook his head. “Oh my god” David said loudly. He thought back to Doc in the sheriff office. How Holiday froze and let Doc die. David was angry at Holiday then and once Doc turned into a zombie he lunged for Holiday. He remembered the Beast at the Gun Store and how annoyed David was with Jane’s stupidity. Most of those times, he remembered that the zombies would have attacked regardless of David’s feelings but there were a few times he remembered where he could have willed them to attack. David turned and ran toward the forest. Guilt ridden, he began to sob slightly. He exited town very quickly and ran into the forest. The sun, now completely set, caused the woods to be almost impossible to see in.

Ahead of David was a light shining out of a window from the log cabin. He rushed toward it, feeling he would be safe from his guilt once he reached it. He could blame everything on his father and mother and none of the things that had happened were his fault. After a few minutes of running toward the light, he finally reached the cabin. He looked in the window and saw a bunch of books, a computer on a table, a few table lights turned on but no father. He pulled at the front door trying to get inside but it was locked shut and wouldn’t budge. He ran around the side of the cabin and noticed a large light that lit up the other side of the cabin. David rushed toward it, coming around the corner to the rear of the cabin. A large rock was lying near the house with a thin post stuck in it. At the top of the post was a lantern which lit up a wide area around him.

Just then a massive force struck David from behind and flung him a few feet forward, head first. He watched below him as he flew over the ground and then he looked up as his face drilled into the rock that held the post. It took him a few seconds to recover from the hit and he rolled over onto his back with his eyes closed. He sat up slowly as his head pounded and blood trickled from his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw at the edge of the light his father standing there wearing a bright white lab coat. Everything was blurry to him but he could see beside his father was The Beast.

“You’re so much like your mother son.” His father said to him slowly. The Beast was hunched over almost frozen in place. Its’ one arm was skinnier then the other because of the unnatural healing. David realized it was the same Beast from earlier at his house.

“She wanted to ‘give’ the cure away also.” He continued with a sinister tone. “She didn’t want to control the virus; she wanted it to never begin in the first place.” His father laughed wildly. “She wanted to destroy all of our hard work!” He yelled toward David and moved closer. “She wanted to give it to Ellen and those bureaucrats at Trinity.” His father sneered and turned away as David reached forward to grab him. His hand hit the ground and he slumped forward. “Then after the accident with you, we had gone too far!” He said mocking David mother’s voice. “I tried to reason with her son - I really did. But she was persistent.” He said pointing a finger at the ground. David’s eyes started to clear, causing his blurry vision to return to normal. “Then she tried to destroy our work!” He yelled once more as The Beast roared into the night. “I got so angry with her,” His father continued as he walked up beside the Beast. David’s headache slowly pounded less and less. His father placed his hand on The Beasts massive arm, “then Gary here took care of her.” David’s eyes opened wide and he stood to his feet slowly.

“Gary?” David struggled to ask. His father turned back toward David and smiled.

“Yes that’s what I named him. Wasn’t his fault - he was just reacting to my emotions at the time.”

His father turned back to The Beast and patted his arm with his hand. “But I have learned to control it since….that accident.”

David, still gripping his massive pistol, raised it toward his father. Anger filled his eyes and he pulled the trigger.

The Beast lunged in front of his father causing the bullet to bounce off its skin. “So much like your mother.” His father said disappointedly as he leaned out from behind The Beast. David held his gun and aimed it shakily towards them. David’s head was hurt badly; blood began to pour more steadily out of the wound on his forehead that was caused by hitting the massive boulder.

His father sighed loudly, “You may be immune but if I will Gary here to smash or move somewhere - he still will, son. Plus, once you die the immunity wears off and you turn just like the rest.” His father patted The Beast on the back. “I guess that’s that then.” His father shrugged. He leaned up behind the beast and smiled. “Go get em.” His father whispered as he enjoyed the control he possessed.

The Beast flew across the ground and swung at David hitting him in the stomach and flinging him into the cabin wall. David let out a loud grunt as he hit the wall and then the ground. He coughed and tried to stand up but was not able to. He barely found the strength to raise his gun toward The Beast. The Beast reached out and grabbed the gun from David’s hand, throwing it behind itself, smashing it off the rock. Then The Beast picked up David by the throat and lifted him into the air. David gasped for air and placed his hands around The Beasts hands.

“Dad!” He grunted. “Stop!”

“I am no longer your father son!” His father yelled walking up behind the Beast and sitting on the rock. The Beast growled loudly and brought its tiny head towards David’s face. Now face to face it squeezed his neck tighter and tighter. “You are a failed experiment and I should have killed you when I killed your mother!” he yelled, picking up David’s gun from the ground. The Beast then stopped growling suddenly. Its hand loosened as David’s face turned into an anger he had not yet known. The Beast released his throat and took a step back. David fell to the ground, partly standing up. He knelt on one knee and breathed harshly and quickly. David’s father looked at the Beast in confusion and yelled at it, “Kill him!”