Catalyst (Book 1): Decay Chains (26 page)

“You too.”

Stormy locked the phone and closed her arms back over Ian.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

DAY ONE—HOURS INTO EPIDEMIC: 00:02:53

The road smoothed out as the van turned into the manicured parking lot. Barely any cars held up in its confines. Only three short rows in the front were filled to capacity.

“It’s got to be in the back somewhere,” Josh said. “Go behind the building.”

“What’s it look like?” Stan asked.

“I’m not sure. Get back on the main road and look for a sign that says secret entrance to the lab.”             

“Thanks, smart ass.”

“You’re welcome.”

Josh scanned the data again. “All it says is that the direct laboratory access is built on the east end of this production location. That’s all I’ve got.”

It took three passes, but Stan finally noticed something in the parking lot behind the building. At the farthest end, there was a bright yellow barrier pole standing alone between two hedges. Stan pulled up to it and they eyed a tiny access panel.

“We’re in luck,” Josh said.

“What?” Stan asked.

“It takes key cards and numbered pass codes. Hold on while I find Easton’s.”

“That could take forever,” Stormy said.

“Or it could take five minutes,” Josh said. “Let me think.”

Stormy dove into the front seat and over Stan to reach outside the window. “Let me try.”

Nine digits later, the mirrored exterior wall slid open.

“That did not look like an entrance,” Josh said. “It’s the biggest Walmart door I’ve ever seen.”

Stan popped the van into drive. “How’d you do that?”

“Matt’s old cell phone number. He kept his passwords simple.”

The van ended up in a huge bowl shaped room framing a wide metal door. All but the bitten jumped out with guns drawn and approached the entrance.

“Call your boyfriend again,” Josh said.

Stormy entered Matt’s cell number, the door clicked open, and fresh hell began.

She was first to lay eyes on Matt. He was behind a giant server set right in the middle of the laboratory. The lab felt like the Arctic, but the server put off heat like no other. It was like the building was menopausal.

She rounded the server and watched in horror as Matt smashed crates of vials onto the floor. Shards of glass streamed in every direction. Limp bodies in lab coats peppered the room. Their trail ended with Matt.

Stan yanked Stormy back behind the server, but not before she locked eyes with Dr. Louboutin. He cowered off the corner of the tabletop Matt was clearing.

Matt judged the look on Dr. Louboutin’s face. “Who’s here?”

Dr. Louboutin froze up.

“She’s here, isn’t she?”

Dr. Louboutin nodded.

“How’s your boyfriend, Stormy?” Matt’s attention returned to the crate of vials on the countertop. “Not looking too good for the human race these days. Ever think of coming back to me?”

Stormy tapped Josh and pointed across the laboratory. “See the freezer? Get the vials. Go now.” She shrugged out of Stan’s grip and walked into the open. “I’m single these days, but not really looking to connect with anyone.”

“My offer still stands. In fact, I’ve improved it some.”

“No, thank you. I don’t like your current temperament.”

Matt leaned against the countertop. “This is me now, who I was always supposed to be.”

“You’re wrong.”

“This isn’t my choice. It never has been.”

“You could’ve used the antivirus.”

“It would kill me. I’m too far gone.”

“One way to find out.”

“You’re argumentative these days. Perhaps that’s why your fling didn’t work out. I forgive you though. Things will be back the way they were and your indiscretions long forgotten in due time. You’ll see.”

“Things aren’t ever going to be like before,” Stormy said. “I’ve come for one thing and it isn’t you.”

“Well, I’m here all because of you. I’ve got something to give you. And then we can be together again.”

“I told you, pass.”

Matt slid his hand behind him, picked up a vial, and held it out to her. “It will be perfect when you are like me. This one is better than the others. It won’t mar your skin like the first. Of course, it’s still in the experimental phase.” He glared at Dr. Louboutin. “Some people work like they’re on government time.”

Matt crossed the space between them in an instant. Before Stormy could react, his hand dug into her cheek, gripping her in what he meant to be a gentle embrace, but was misjudged badly. “I’m going to make more like me, starting with you.”

Stan left the security of the server with his gun on Matt. With Stormy trapped in front of him, Matt had almost nowhere to go. Almost.

Stan’s barrel thudded against Matt’s ear. “Let go of her, now.”

Matt lifted his free hand in surrender, but his eyes focused on Dr. Louboutin, who cowered in the corner. His fingers left Stormy’s face in a flurry as he lunged in the doctor’s direction. He had the doctor up in the air, suspended by one arm and screaming, when he returned to the countertop.

“I’ll show you it’s harmless.”

With one hand still choking the doctor, Matt loaded the vial into an injector. Dr. Louboutin gurgled and turned cherry red. His feet dangled beneath him like snakes hung by their tails from a clothesline. Matt looked his captor in his eyes as he raised the injector to his neck.

“You shouldn’t do work you don’t believe in enough to test on yourself. You had enough time to get this right, Doc. It wasn’t a damn government research project. You knew you had a deadline.”

Stan’s shot grazed Matt’s midsection and did absolutely nothing to stop him. Undeterred, Matt stabbed the injector into Dr. Louboutin’s neck and flooded his system with the MTK virus. The doctor quit fighting, but a scream seemed to be trapped in his eyes.              

He isn’t fighting it. Maybe he can’t.

Stormy paid attention as Dr. Louboutin wrestled his demons. He floundered to the point where Matt lost interest and tossed him against the far wall. After his short flight and impact, he crumpled to the floor and rolled around in a fit of shakes. He groaned and cried as his body gave in to the virus that sought to kill, then reconstruct him. Matt flung the remaining crates to the floor.

Enough. Stop breaking shit. There’s not much left.

Matt’s fists clenched and unclenched. He glared at the doctor’s broken body, but he didn’t say a word. The MTK virus wasn’t proving to be any safer than the rest.

Stormy raised her weapon and fell in line with Stan. She intended to walk away no more infected than she was this morning. She glanced at the freezer. Josh left the door ajar. Fog floated out of humanity’s only chilled hope.
Hurry up, Josh.

Stan elbowed her. When she looked up at him, he nodded and stepped forward. He got one round off that barely missed Matt’s head. The shot took off an ear, which pissed Matt off.

And then Matt was all over him.

Matt blurred as he assailed Stan. His fingers grated across Stan’s skin as they reached for his throat. Stormy tried to keep Matt in her sites and not any part of Stan, but they thrashed around too much. She heard something snap and screamed.

“I’m tired of being shot by you,” Matt said.

Stan kicked Matt in the gut. While Matt returned the favor, Stormy got two shots off. One hit Matt’s thigh and the other grazed Stan’s arm. That time Stan managed to scream, even though Matt held him by the throat.

“Matt,” Stormy yelled.

Matt choked Stan with one arm and punched him in the gut with the other. Stan’s face was blotchy all over. Something snapped again and he coughed blood in Matt’s face. They were too close together. She couldn’t shoot one and not the other.

“Matt, now or never,” she said.              

“Be with you in a minute, dear.”

Stormy raced to the remaining crates and rummaged through the color coded vials until she found a green one. After checking the contents twice, she snapped a vial into an injector and curled her fingers around the label. She hated needles and despised the way this one felt as it grazed her neck.

“Guess I’ll do the honors myself.”

Matt looked over his shoulder at her. “Are you serious?”

“Are you done playing with your friend?”

“I did all this for you. For us.”

“I know.”

“I can’t be without you anymore,” Matt said. “You have no idea what this is doing to me.”

“So come do the honors yourself.”

Stormy wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she wouldn’t let up. She couldn’t. The needle bore a tiny hole in her neck. She wanted to stop pressing so hard, but the adrenaline made her fingers quake.

Matt let go of Stan and smiled as he fell on his ass. Then he stomped on his head once. Stan didn’t move after that.

Please don’t die, Stan. Oh, God.

Matt was upon her now. His hands glided up her middle. Stormy choked on her own closed throat and fought to ignore the little sensors on her body that somehow still reacted to his touch in their old way. In the wrong way. The rest of her trembled in terror, but the sensual part of her was on a delay. It needed to catch the hell up.

“You have no idea how badly I’ve been wanting to do this.” Matt’s breaths came slow as they crawled up the needle free side of her neck. She knew it was now or never.

She didn’t stop him when his lips found hers. Eyes squeezed shut, she fought past the flood of emotions that raged within their kiss. She eased the needle off her own neck and onto his. All she had to do was press down on the plunger.

He was beautiful once, in a way no other man ever radiated. There were pretty faces, but with Matt it went so much further. His face was a symmetrical masterpiece of taunt lines, so strong and straight, she fought the urge to flick at them to see if they clinked like granite.

Lighting makes or ruins people. Dreary day or white-hot beach, Matt didn’t fade. She used to want to brutalize the women who fawned over him. Now she felt blessed that at least a handful of people might savor the memory of what he used to be. He could live on that way, after she put an end to the gruesome sight he was now.

She exhaled a deep breath and a memory released with it. Matt, face blacked out from the lack of light, shifting to his elbow, halfway under the covers, not satisfied till their eyes locked. His long frame covered her, but his muscles carried the weight artfully, never crushing her the way his build should. He was made to create endorphin rushes and she was a fiend for him. Always had been. Always would be.

A series of tears, some moving a little faster than the others, slid down Stormy’s face as she jammed the needle into Matt’s neck. He cringed as she smashed the plunger down with her thumb, as far as it would go. He flung her into the wall and then overturned the lab table. It landed on top of her. Hundreds of vials broke apart. It rained shards. She fought to push the table off herself, but it wouldn’t budge.

“You’d do it wouldn’t you, Stormy? Take what little life I have left.”

His voice pulled her to him. The connection she had always felt was deeper now, ingrained. Like a moth to a light. A closed circuit flew from him to her and she had to fight to concentrate now that it was live. One kiss ago, that feed didn’t exist.

Matt unearthed Stormy and threw her back on the ground. “Why are you doing this? Why?” Her head knocked against the tile as he shook her.

“You’re hurting me.”

He pinned her to the ice-cold floor. “No, I’m not. I know you don’t like the idea much, but you’re not giving it a try. This is for us. So we can be together. You won’t give me a chance. I’m not the bad guy here.”

It took her a moment to decide if she wanted to cry or stab him. She reached for the knife in her belt. “You hurt people.”

He reached down, grabbed her knife out of her hand and tossed it. “Only people that you already hate.”

“The SWAT team?”

“They were shooting at you too, sweetness.”

“Stan?”

“He had that coming. He started it and you know it.”

“The dead body in my—”

It sounded like a firing squad had let loose. Matt looked confused. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as he slumped on his side. His chest heaved in and out, drawing attention to the telltale concave section that started this all. Three raspy breaths later, he lay motionless beside her. An overwhelming feeling consumed her, but it wasn’t purely relief.

Stan and Josh lowered their weapons, but only slightly.

“You okay?” Stan said.

“I’ll be fine,” she said.

Stan cringed as he helped Stormy up. The blood had run out of his face. His pallor was autopsy like up close.

“Purdy was right,” Stan said. “You’re fucking crazy.”

Stan turned to Josh. “Did you give them the antivirus?”

“I gave Ian and Purdy two vials each and locked them inside.” Josh let his weapon drape down his back and set off toward the van. “Let’s torch this fucking place and get out of here. I want Ian to die at home.”