All The Beautiful People (A Dread Novel Book 1) (16 page)

CHAPTER 35

Taylor slammed open the door leading to the exit and found herself on a deserted rooftop. The light blinded her briefly, turning her vision white. Squinting past the daylight Taylor knew the rooftop helicopter pad was empty.

The commotion of the pursuit behind her made her run. Instinct to survive told her she couldn’t give up. To
where
she was running, Taylor didn’t know. The choppers were gone. Feelings of happiness for Cidney’s escape were laced with betrayal for being left behind herself. Would she have done anything different?

Someone yelling her name shook her from her preoccupation. Taylor looked to her right. Against all odds, a chopper was making a small circle and coming back for her. Taylor’s heart was beating so hard it was knocking against her ribs.

She craned her neck and tried to control her breathing to make out the words. It was Jason. He was hanging from the chopper trying to get her attention. He was screaming something Taylor wasn’t able to make out. Joy at seeing the chopper was all she could focus on. They hadn’t left her.

“Taylor!” Jason’s cries finally reached her over the sound of the approaching chopper. “Run!”

Her brief respite from the events around her was over. Exhilaration was a feeling she wasn’t familiar with and it would still have to wait to be experienced at a later time.

The diseased humans behind her had already found the rooftop exit and were racing across the building’s roof.

One more go, you got this, kid,
Taylor said to herself as she stared at the oncoming horde. Their ranks were as swollen as ever. The numbers that had been mowed down that day were irrelevant. The infected were spreading, of that there was no doubt.

A moment later the monsters spotted her across the rooftop and began their fanatical pursuit once again. Taylor’s exhausted legs moved on their own. The chopper was too far away for her to reach. The infected would get to her first unless she did something drastic.

Taylor moved without thought. Time seemed to slow as instinct took over. The chopper was too far; she’d have to jump from the roof. The right half of Jason’s body hung from the chopper door. He was motioning her to run faster. Captain Martin anchored Jason’s left side firmly in the chopper with both hands.

Her pulse pounded in her ears louder than any other noise. She could see the nightmares in living form to her right. They were going to cut her off from the rooftop edge.

Taylor poured every ounce of strength into her legs. Before fear or reason could stop her, she touched the ledge. The hands of her pursuers reached for her, their fingers scraping against her skin. Angry screams of being cheated from their next victim gurgled from their oozing black mouths.

In the next second, Taylor was flying through the air. The distance seemed impossible. It was a good five yards through the air to the chopper. Taylor reached out with her right hand. Jason was leaning so far from the chopper he looked like he was going to fall at any moment.

Her forward moment carried her through the empty space like she was flying. Her hand slapped against Jason’s. In a second, his hand clamped onto hers with a grip like he would never let go. Taylor hung in the air for the briefest of moments as wonder told her she had made it.

The infected behind her had the same idea. Rather than being content to let their prey escape, they pursued. They refused to concede defeat and threw themselves off the rooftop after her. Dozens of bodies launched themselves from the roof. Clawing hands and fingers ripped at Taylor’s legs and feet.

“Up, pull us up!” the captain yelled to the helicopter pilot.

Taylor looked up into Jason’s face. He panted with the effort to pull her up into the chopper.

The chopper pulled away from the building. More and more crazed humans flung themselves at Taylor. Most missed, sentenced to a gruesome landing below. Those that did manage to get a hand on Taylor failed to find any kind of hold on her legs or feet.

Just when Taylor was faced with the genuine real possibility that she was going to make it, her luck changed. A tall, wiry man wearing a tank top and running shoes launched himself from the building. With a snarl he extended a blood-drenched hand. His timing was perfect; his aim was better. Latching onto her, he found a secure hold on her left boot.

The weight of an extra person nearly jerked Jason from the chopper and he screamed as his joints were stretched to their limit. Taylor looked down into the face of pure madness. The creature filled with madness was trying to climb its way up her leg. Suspended in mid-air, Taylor had very limited resources at her disposal.

As the creature clawed at her leg trying to climb, Taylor struck out with her free leg. Again and again her boot made contact with the infected’s skull to no effect. Ignoring the pain, the unwanted hitchhiker pulled himself up and opened his jaws wide.

He bit down on the area inches above Taylor’s boot. Taylor screamed with pain as teeth clamped down over her pants and grinded on the flesh of her calf underneath. Though it was impossible to know for certain, Taylor felt like her skin had been punctured.

Things went from bad to worse as the chopper hit turbulence and Taylor’s body swung like a pendulum. She was a link in a human chain being tossed from side to side.

The air whipped Taylor around until she felt as if the joints in her arms were going to be torn in two. The only thing that made the agony in her arms bearable was the amount of fear she had at being eaten alive from below.

The monster hanging onto her managed to lift her pant leg, exposing the skin of her calf beneath. Taylor heard Jason and Captain Martin screaming something above; all words and thought were past Taylor. She looked down to see the teeth of the infected sink into the meaty part of her calf.

Pain became a secondary emotion. All Taylor felt was anger; anger at being so close to escape and rage at not being able to be part of Cidney’s life.

The possibility that had always been present, the idea of turning into one of the infected, was now a reality. Adrenaline and fury moved Taylor past the realization that her life was over. All she wanted to do now was give her anger the outlet it so fervently demanded. Taylor struck down with her free leg onto the crown of the diseased victim. Over and over again she slammed her boot into the skull and face of her attacker. Tears welled in her eyes from frustration.

Her life as she knew it was over, however, if she was going to die then she wasn’t going alone. Her foot made contact with the hard flesh of the man’s skull below so many times Taylor lost count. Finally, with one last herculean effort, Taylor dismissed her assailant. The heel of her boot missed the skull of her assailant and crashed into his left wrist. A sick snap broke his hold on her and the monster went tumbling below with a wild scream of anger.

Relief washed over Taylor as her vision began to blur. She was being lifted into the chopper with weary hands and laid on the hard floor of the cabin. Jason’s face appeared above her.

“Hey, you hang in there. Stay with me, Taylor. We’re going to get you help.”

His words were meant to calm her, Taylor knew. The cracking in his voice told her how he truly felt.

“You…” Taylor fought the fuzziness that tried to steal away her vision, “…you have to kill me now. I can’t turn into one of those things.”

Tears filled Jason’s eyes. “No.”

The rhythmic sound of the whirling chopper blades added to the force trying to take Taylor’s vision. She forced her neck to move. She needed to find the captain. Certainly he would realize that she had to be killed. While she was looking for Captain Martin to plead for her own death, darkness came for her.

CHAPTER 36

Madness. She was so hungry. She needed to eat. Every fiber in her body told her meat was the only answer. Her consciousness was broken. Only when she concentrated with her entire being was she able to put together a complete thought. Rationale was reduced to a few blurry images. Animalistic urges took the place of any train of thought.
Food. Blood.

Taylor’s eyes blinked open. She was on a clean bed inside a huge steel container. It took her muddled mind a few minutes to realize she was in a plane. She tried to lift a hand to move away the rogue strands of hair from her eyesight. Her hand didn’t budge. She struggled, only to find that her wrists and ankles were tied to the bedframe.

Taylor tried to scream, though only a snarl escaped her lips. There was no pain. Only the need to kill, eat, scream. Taylor fought the feelings as memories of the events leading up to her current state came back to her. She was turning, that much was clear. Was this how it was supposed to be? What wicked, cruel experience was this?

“She’s awake. Taylor, can you hear me?”

Frank rushed to her side. He was pale, eyes bloodshot to the point that the whites of his eyes were completely gone. “Taylor, can you hear me?”

A tiny voice somewhere in the deepest darkest recess of her mind was purring to her,
“You can make him perfect. He’s flawed now but you can make him beautiful. A cut here or a scratch there and he’ll be as perfect as you.”

“Stay ba—” Taylor fought back the insane urge to crane her neck forward and take a piece of Frank’s face in her teeth all in the name of making him perfect. “Stay back!”

Frank nodded as if he understood what was happening, “Whatever good is left inside of you, Taylor, whatever light remains, you hold on to that. We’re going to save you, but we need time. Don’t let the darkness dictate who you are. Hold on.”

It was all Taylor could do to nod. Trying to get any words out seemed impossible.

Dr. Valery Spear joined Frank by the bedside. “Taylor, don’t try to speak. We have a serum we think may work to reverse the process. We have to make it to the facility before we administer it to you. In the meantime, we are going to drug you. You’ll be in a comatose state that will hopefully slow the process of the infection spreading through you. But we need you to fight this thing too.”

The doctor looked down on her through tired eyes. Pity was present in her stare, yet there was a fire there as well. “I need you to fight. And if you can, I’d like your consent, we need to try the serum on you. It’s untested but it’s the best chance you have. If you can understand any of this and consent to the test, nod.”

Taylor felt cold. All she wanted to do now was disfigure and mutilate. It seemed as if her sole purpose was to—no. No, that wasn’t her. She was Taylor Hart and people needed her. Fighting the madness spreading inside, Taylor clenched her jaw and managed a weak nod to the doctor.

Dr. Spear returned Taylor’s nod with a faint smile then moved out of Taylor’s sight.

Frank took her place. “You’re going to make it, Taylor. Dr. Jenkins had a theory that the best parts of people could be enhanced just like the worst parts can. The best part of yourself that you can push to the surface, you bring it forward. Cidney needs you. We all need you.”

Taylor started to fade into a drug-induced stupor. Who she would be when she woke was anyone’s guess.

CHAPTER 37

Pain was all she felt when she woke. It was the exact opposite feeling as her previous waking experience. Where she felt cold and distant, even maddened, now was the agony of molten lava pouring through her entire body. Heat took her breath away and made her vision spin as a searing sensation started at her skull and raced down to her toes.

Taylor gasped, fighting to catch her breath as the discomfort subsided only the slightest bit. Her hands and legs were tied down again. She knew this to be true even while trying to open her eyes. The second thing she knew was that whatever serum had been administered to her must have worked. Her thoughts, although laced with torment, were her own.

She opened her eyes the tiniest bit. Light poured into her vision, blinding her and bringing even more discomfort. The light was like an ice pick being driven through her eyes and into the back of her skull. Taylor took a deep breath and slowly dealt with the agony. Forcing her eyes open bit-by-bit she was eventually able to take in her surroundings.

She was on a bed. Her arms and chest were hooked up to a myriad of machines. Some she recognized, like heart monitors, others looked as though they were straight out of a science fiction scene. As far as she could see, the rest of the room was plain white. A large window was beside a closed door. Taylor’s view into the room on the other side of the window was only more of the same; white walls shaped what appeared to be a section of a hallway.

Was she dead? The thought touched her throbbing mind and was dismissed as quickly. She probably wouldn’t be feeling this much pain if she was already among the walking infected.

Motion to her left made her turn in the direction. Wade Treadstone stood from a chair in the corner and walked to stand beside her bed. His suit was gone, traded in for a pair of heavy boots, jeans, and a sweater that would have made Taylor laugh in any other circumstance.

“How’d I do?” she asked.

Wade gave her a huge smile. “You did fantastic, Taylor. It was a bit risky the first few days but you fought through it.”

Taylor tried to piece together Wade’s words. “First few
days
? How long was I out?”

“Almost a week. You’ve had us all worried. Especially Cidney.”

Taylor took a deep breath. The discomfort in her body was present but seemed to be subsiding by the minute.

“The restraints are in place only until we were sure you’d wake up as yourself,” Wade explained. “All the tests came back positive. Dr. Spear wanted to lift the restraints days ago but I was less trusting.”

“You did the right thing,” Taylor said.

“How are you feeling?”

Taylor searched for the right words to capture her current physical state. “Imagine if you got torn to pieces then reassembled in an oven and…then got struck by lightning.”

“Oh, is that all?” Wade chuckled.

Taylor would have managed a laugh of her own had she not been worried about the pain that would accompany the action.

“Did everyone get out?”

Wade nodded. “Because of you, yes. Everyone made it safely to the Ark facility in Alaska, Cidney included. She asks if she can see you every day.”

Relief washed over and almost took Taylor’s lurking pain away. Almost.

The door to the room opened and Dr. Spear walked in with a smile on her face. “So she’s awake. You made it, Taylor, with flying colors.”

“Thanks to you and Frank.”

The doctor ignored the compliment and examined the readouts on the army of machines connected to Taylor. “All the reports are normal. Once you stabilized yesterday it’s been all smooth sailing. I’d like to keep you a few more days for surveillance to be certain there are no side effects but I don’t see why we can’t get these restraints off you.”

Taylor detected the hint of doubt in the doctor’s voice as Wade began removing the brown leather cuffs that held Taylor to the bed.

“Side effects?”

Wade exchanged a sideways glance with the doctor. Valery answered. “Yes, the serum we built for you is unprecedented on any level. Working with ingredients that can alter the levels of good and evil in a human have never been explored. If this trial is successful, we may be able to fashion a cure, maybe even an antidote.”

Wade started working on the last cuff holding Taylor’s left ankle in place. “We’ll have to take certain cautionary measures in the coming days, Taylor. But I’m sure you’ll understand it’s for everyone’s safety, including your own.”

Taylor swallowed hard. It was clear that she wasn’t out of danger yet. What was it they weren’t telling her? It didn’t matter; she would get answers on her own.