Aliens Versus Zombies (12 page)

The nods were more emphatic this time.

“Good. Let’s move out. Trust me, you’re gonna love your new home.”

“What have you got for me, Doctor?” Battle Commander FronCar stood just inside the door of Dr. ZemBleth’s office.

“I wanted to show you the progress I’ve made on the hyperallergy virus.”

“Show me.”

The doctor pressed a control and a holographic image appeared in the center of the room. The image was of two indigenes in an isolation ward.

“As I said earlier, I was going to try to splice Drahtch DNA with the indigene DNA to see if I could replicate the hyperallergic reaction that we saw in a few subjects.”

“Yes, of course.”

ZemBleth nodded. “Just making sure you remembered what we talked about.”

“My memory is quite good, Doctor. Proceed.”

“Very well. My team ran DNA scans looking for markers that might suggest a susceptibility to allergens. We injected subjects subdermally with various Drahtch bodily fluids, enzymes, hormones, proteins, etc., looking to see what evoked the strongest reactions. It turned out to be extremely complicated. Just as each Drahtch’s biochemistry is unique, so is each indigene’s. We had to test samples from many Drahtch against samples from many indigenes until we found the most violent reaction. Then we combined the Drahtch DNA segments that expressed the appropriate stressor material with the indigene DNA that reacted most strongly to it.”

“
And
…” FronCan was losing patience with this long, drawn-out explanation.

“And, after thousands of simulations and dozens of trials, this was the result.”

He pressed another control and the holo began playing. At first, nothing happened, except that the indigenes paced back and forth, like caged animals. The doctor sped up the holo for a few seconds and then went back to normal speed. One of the subjects began coughing and sneezing, over and over. The other subject ignored her and kept pacing. The doctor fast-forwarded the holo again. Now the
second
subject was coughing and sneezing. Soon the first subject crumpled to the floor and began spasming. She died moments later. The doctor fast-forwarded a bit more, until the second subject likewise collapsed and died.

“So, what do you think, commander?”

A slow smile spread across FronCar’s face. “Excellent work, Doctor. When can we have this ready to deploy?”

“Not so fast. What you just saw was a best-case proof of concept. There is still a lot more work to do. Many of the subjects didn’t contract the virus—or, at least they didn’t suffer any reaction. At best a mild one. And some of the subjects died too quickly, before they were able to pass the virus on. We still need to do a lot more refining of the treatment before it’s reliable enough and effective enough to use as a weapon. If we deploy it too soon, we run the risk of the population developing an immunity to it before it has a chance to spread very far.”

FronCar nodded. “I understand. When do you think you might be ready with an effective treatment?” He held up a hand. “I’m not holding you to a firm date, just trying to get an idea of when it might be ready, so I can begin planning how best to deploy it.”

Dr. ZemBleth rocked his head from side to side and chewed his lip as he thought. “I’d say another month, give or take, would be a reasonable goal. No guarantees, though. We may run into some unforeseen snags along the way.”

“Of course. I’ll use a month as a target. Let me know when you have a better idea of when you might be finished.

“Of course, Commander. I’m looking forward to seeing it deployed as much as you are. We can finally make some headway towards eliminating those disgusting indies so we can begin settling the planet. I’m as eager to settle down below as anyone.”

FronCar smiled. “I’m glad we’re in agreement, Doctor.”

* * * *

It was a blustery day in the neighborhood. Because the wind made it unseasonably cool, both Daniels and Moose wore light jackets.

As they crossed the street, a hoot and a shriek sounded from two buildings to their right.

“There!” Moose shouted, pointing.

Eleven Zoms poured out of a storefront, charging right at the duo.

“Inside!” Daniels yelled.

The convenience store didn’t provide a lot of protection. The plate glass window had long since been shattered; still, at least the Zoms could only come at them from one direction.

“Behind the counter!”

It wouldn’t stop the Zoms, but it would slow them down enough that the two should be able to pick them off before they could get past it.

Rifles were too cumbersome in these tight quarters, so they pulled their pistols.

Two Zoms clambered through the window, mindless of the broken glass as three others dashed through the door.

Daniels put a round into the chest of the first one in. It kept coming. He had to waste a second bullet on it, and then splattered the face of the next one. Moose dropped three others as they kept coming. The men took out five more between them.

“Look out!” Moose shouted.

Three Zoms appeared from nowhere, coming from the left—where the back door was—and right through the opening at the end of the counter.

The first dove at Daniels, knocking him down and against Jesse’s legs. Jesse stumbled, causing him to miss his shot. A fourth Zom raced through the front door.

Within seconds, both men were on the floor, with all four Zoms on top of them.

Moose got one shot off before running out of ammo. A Zom wrestled Daniels’ gun from his hand. It was down to hands and teeth and knives—
if
the duo could get to theirs.

A Zom took a vicious bite at Daniels’ left forearm. Chick ripped his arm free and managed to kick another one off him. That gave him a split second in which to grab his knife from his thigh holster. He stabbed upward into the chest of the Zom who dove at him.

Daniels’ left hand blazed with pain as he finished off the first Zom. He cried out in agony, and then the pain stopped. Moose yanked the Zom up by his hair and slit his throat. Blood sprayed everywhere.

Daniels stood and looked around. Nothing moved but the two of them.

“Shit. That was hairy.”

“Dude! Your hand!” Moose pointed.

Daniels looked down at his hand, which was dripping blood. Then he looked at the floor. There lay a human pinky finger in a puddle of red.

“Fuck.”

Then he passed out.

* * * *

Daniels awoke to find Moose standing over him.

“You okay, Sarge?”

“Yeah.
Ow!
” Daniels raised his left hand to see why it hurt so much and stared at the large white bandage stained with red for a moment. “What—? Oh.”

Memory of the brawl came back to him in a rush.

“Thanks, Moose.” He waved the hand in the other’s direction.

“Hey, no problem. Good thing they had antibiotic creams and gauze and shit here. I guess a convenience store is actually a convenient place to be attacked.”

Daniels returned a weak smile for the equally weak joke.

“We’d better get you back so you can lie down somewhere safe.”

Daniels nodded and attempted to stand. He got halfway up and then fell back.

“You lost a bunch of blood, dude. You gotta take your time.”

Daniels nodded again. “No kidding. Wow. Okay, give me a hand, would you?”

He held out his right hand and Moose gripped it and pulled. Daniels used his left hand to push off with and immediately grimaced in pain. Still, it did the job and he was on his feet. Wobbly, but standing.

“You okay to walk, dude?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Moose shrugged. “You can lean on me if you need to.”

“Thanks, Hector. I appreciate it. Let’s see how I do on my own.”

“Cool. Just don’t push it. We don’t need ya fallin’ down in the middle of the street. ‘Specially if there’s other Zoms in the area.”

“No kiddin’. Okay, let’s do it.” He started for the door.

“By the way, I got your finger.” Moose held up a plastic grocery bag. “No ice, though. Don’t know what good it’ll do without a doc to sew it back on, but I didn’t like the idea of a Zom sittin’ here gnawin’ on it after we’re gone.”

Daniels grimaced at the thought. “I appreciate it. Let’s move.”

* * * *

“You said you had a ‘fascinating development’ to show me, Doctor?”

“Yes, yes.” Dr. ZemBleth positively bubbled with excitement. “Over here.”

He led FronCar to an examination table and pointed.

“Yes, so?”

“Listen.”

The indigene grunted as it struggled with its restraints. Then, instead of the expected hoots and shrieks…

“Let me out of here, goddamn it! I have rights, you gold-painted freaks! You can’t hold me like this! I’m an American citizen,
goddamn
it!”

“Interesting,” FronCar said, as the two stepped away from the racket. “It sounds like actual speech. What do you suppose it’s saying?”

“Who knows? Probably what you or I would say in this situation. ‘Where am I? Who are you? Take me to your leader.’ That sort of thing.”

“Interesting,” FronCar repeated. “Why can this one speak but not the others?”

“I don’t know yet. That’s what makes it so fascinating. I presume it was spared whatever happened to the rest. But by comparing its anatomy and biology to that of the others I may be able to get a better idea of what happened here. There’s no telling how that may help my research.”

“Of course. Just be sure it doesn’t delay your efforts to create the hyperallergy virus.”

“My hope is that understanding this creature’s biology will speed up the process.”

FronCar nodded. “Very good, Doctor. Carry on.”

“You should know, Commander, that if there’s one of these intelligent indigenes, there are bound to be others.”

* * * *

“How’re you doing, Chick?” Chrissy sat beside Daniels’ bed.

The latter was there under protest. “I’m fine. It’s just a finger. It’s not like I lost a leg.”

“Tough guy, huh? The doctor said you need to stay in bed for at least a day, until you replenish the blood you lost.”

“What does he know? He’s not a doc, just a washed-up Army corpsman.”

“Hey, be nice! He stitched you up, didn’t he? Be glad we have him or you might’ve bled out.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess I’m just grouchy. I hate lying around when there’s stuff to do.”

“Like I said, ‘tough guy’. So, how’s the pain?”

He held up his left arm, which had two bandages on it, a big one on his hand and a smaller one on his forearm, where the denim jacket had kept the other Zom’s bite from doing more than just breaking the skin.

“Pain? What pain? With the oxy the doc gave me, you could cut me open and hand me my guts and I wouldn’t feel it.”

“Good. Think how grumpy you’d be if you were actually in pain.”

They both got a laugh from that.

* * * *

“You called for me, Your Excellency?” FronCar stood at perfect attention while he waited for Viceroy CresNal to acknowledge his presence.

CresNal continued to focus on the viewscreen in front of him in the sumptuous ready room. The rich, woven draperies and the rare wood species used to decorate his desk were ridiculous indulgences that FronCar sneered at internally. Of course, it would be suicide to let the viceroy know how he felt.

Finally CresNal finished his apparent show of importance and turned to face FronCar.

“At ease, Commander. What is your assessment of the security level in the city below?”

FronCar wasn’t sure where CresNal was going with this question. He kept the answer simple, without embellishment.

“Sir, we have essentially secured approximately one-fifth of the city, starting at the southern end, with another twenty percent or so nearly free of indigenes. A few indigenes pop up now and then from various hiding places, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. We continue to push the remainder toward the north. We should have half of the city fully secured within the month. The rest of the city within three.”

“Excellent. So, the process didn’t require bombing half the planet after all.”

Nothing like throwing an ‘I told you so’ in one’s face. “No sir. We have lost several hundred troops along the way, but those are acceptable losses.”

“Indeed. In that case, I would like you to begin setting up a full defensive perimeter around the secured area so we can begin offloading colonists. We have been up here for two months already, and the colonists are eager to begin their new lives on this beautiful planet we’ve arrived at.”

“Sir, I recommend waiting until the entire city is secure and we can erect the force field around everything. Trying to envelop just a piece of it, with buildings, trees, and other obstacles in the way, will severely compromise the effectiveness of the perimeter.”