Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (40 page)

The zombie closest to Fisher grabbed her and pulled her out of the elevator with such force that Fisher’s head violently snapped back. The creature threw Fisher against the wall,  wrapped its fingers around her head, and squeezed. Fisher swung blindly at her attacker, but the creature tightened its grip around Fisher's head.

Wilder jumped out of the way of a zombie as it lunged toward him, and he buried his combat knife into the back of the creature’s head. Wilder then pivoted, and with one kick, snapped another creature’s leg at the knee and immobilized it.

Steele was caught by surprise at the sight of the zombies, but raised the sledgehammer chest high and prevented one creature from sinking its teeth into him. Steele kneed the yellow-eyed creature in the balls and pushed it back with the handle of the sledgehammer. As the zombie stumbled back, Walt didn’t hesitate and buried Stevie into the creature’s head.

Walt tried to free Stevie from the yellow-eyed creature’s skull, but some of the nails were wedged into the bones around the eyes.

Fisher screamed as the creature squeezed.

“Somebody help Fisher!
”
Walt screamed.

Wilder grabbed his knife from the dead creature’s skull and moved over to where Fisher screamed. Wilder quickly jabbed the knife three times into the yellow-eyed creature’s ribs, but the thing wouldn’t release its grip on Fisher.

Fisher continued to scream until a horrible cracking noise filled the corridor. What sounded like a bag of walnuts all being cracked at the same time made everyone hesitate for a second. The zombie kept squeezing, and they all realized they’d just heard Fisher’s skull crack. Wilder raised his combat knife to stab the thing in the neck, but it was too late.

Fisher’s skull caved, which allowed the zombie to sink its fingers deeper. The zombie pulled back and tore Fisher’s head into two pieces. Blood, skull fragments, and brain splattered everywhere as Fisher’s body slid down the wall to the ground.

Wilder’s knife entered the creature’s jugular notch, right above the sternum, and he slid it diagonally upward, severing all the arteries in its neck. Blood painted the wall bright red as Wilder dropped the knife and twisted the zombie’s head, tearing it off its body.

Cheryl turned her head and threw up at the sight of Fisher’s mangled head. Wilder turned his head away from the sight and helped Walt dislodge Stevie from the other creature’s skull.

Steele dropped Stevie on the ground and walked to Fisher’s lifeless corpse where he knelt down and held her hand. Steele dropped his head.

“I’m sorry, Fisher,
”
Steele whispered. “I’m so sorry.
”

Without warning, Steele threw Fisher’s hand out of his and stumbled back into an odd crab-like walk. He slammed into the wall across the corridor.

“What the hell’s the matter with you, Steele?
”
Cheryl asked.

“Her, her hand,
”
Walt stuttered. “It twitched. Her hand fucking twitched.”

They all turned and watched as Fisher’s body stood up.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,
”
Walt said.

Cheryl tightened her grip on the crowbar and buried it into the remains of Fisher's head. The crowbar hit its target with a wet, meaty
thunk
sound and was stuck.

Cheryl stepped back when she saw Steele and Walt charging towards the thing. Steele brought his sledgehammer down of the top of the pulpy mass that used to be Fisher’s head, and Walt sunk Stevie into the monster’s soft belly.

Cheryl grabbed the crowbar that stuck out of Fisher’s head and used it like a handle. She guided the creature into the elevator just as the doors were closing.

They all looked at each other in a mixture of shock and confusion.

“What the fuck was that?
”
Walt said with an edge of panic to his voice.

“I have no idea,
”
Butsko said, “but don’t lose it here, Walt. If there were four of them down here, there may be forty.”

Just as Butsko finished his sentence, the group heard several loud, aggressive moans. They all looked down the corridor to the “T
”
junction and knew they were about to be attacked.

“We need to find cover,
now!
”
Wilder shouted. “I don’t know how many there are, and I don’t wanna find out.”

A door was just a few feet away, and within seconds they were inside and barricaded in.

“There’s something really fucked up going on here,
”
Cheryl said. “What we just saw wasn’t a mutation or evolution.”

“It almost seems like these yellow-eyed bastards aren’t just getting stronger and smarter,
”
Butsko said, “but down here it seems they’re invincible.”

The entire wall trembled as an unknown number of zombies slammed against the door. Everyone jumped back.

“What the fuck are we going to do?
”
asked Cheryl.

“Whatever it is,
”
Steele said as the door began to splinter, “we better do it fast.”

10

Walt’s mind wandered as he thought about the horrifying creature Fisher had reanimated into. Over the last two years, he hadn’t seen any creature with such massive head trauma come back from the dead. Why Fisher?

“Walt!
”
Wilder barked. “Look around. We need to find a way out of this room.”

They didn’t know how many zombies were slamming against the door, and they didn’t want to stick around to find out.

“Back here!
”
Cheryl yelled to the others. “I found a door to the next lab!”

Wilder, Steele, Walt, and Butsko joined Cheryl at the door.

“Shit!
”
yelled Wilder when he saw the keypad next to the door. “We don’t have time for this!”

“I got this,
”
said Steele as he raised his sledgehammer.

“Put that down,
”
Butsko growled. “Breaking the door down won’t help us.”

“What’s the make of the keypad?
”
Butsko asked as he made his way to the door. “Is it government-issued?”

“The company is GenTec,
”
Cheryl said as she read the name on the keypad.

“Perfect,
”
Butsko said with a smile.

The zombies continued to slam against the door. One of the hinges fell to the floor and they all reacted like a grenade had just been thrown into the room.

“Whatever you’re going to do,
”
said Wilder, “do it right now.”

Butsko leaned down to better see the keypad and keyed in the code ***00000099#*. The door unlocked, and the group ran into the neighboring laboratory.

Just as Butsko shut the joining door, the zombies broke into the room.

“GenTec doors are made with a safety code in case of emergencies. With the code, we can open every door in this facility,
”
Butsko explained
.
“This seemed like an emergency.”

“As long as they’re all GenTec doors,
”
Cheryl said.

“Go find the next joining door,
”
Butsko said. “These doors will be stronger than the ones that lead into the corridor. They’re made with thicker metal designed to contain fires and anything else that could break out of a lab.”

No one dared think about what else could break out in these above top-secret labs.

“I found the next door!
”
Walt called from the far side of the lab.

“Good,
”
Butsko said. “We now know where it is and how to get through it. Let’s look around this lab, and see if there’s anything we can use.”

The laboratory had rows of shelves lined with microscopes, beakers, and many other pieces of the equipment of all sizes.

“Damn,
”
Butsko said. “This looks like a goddamn storage room.”

“Are those microwave ovens?
”
Wilder asked.

“Yes,
”
said Cheryl. “Why? Are you hungry?”

“Walt, find me something flammable; Steele, find me some steel wool or something like it,
”
Wilder said as he ignored Cheryl’s comment.

Wilder pulled the shelf with the microwaves closer to the door that led into the next room. He made sure all the microwave ovens were plugged in.

“Here’s some steel wool pads,
”
Steele said as he ran toward Wilder.

“How are we on some kind of flammable liquid?
”
Wilder asked.

“I found some pentane, petroleum ether, and propylene oxide!
”
Walt yelled back.

“Bring them all over here. Quickly!
”
Wilder barked.

Butsko and Cheryl stood by the door, ready to input the bypass code.

Wilder grabbed six glass beakers and filled them all with a mixture of the chemicals Walt brought over. He inserted a steel wool pad into each beaker.

Steele and Walt helped Wilder place a beaker in each microwave.

“Set the timers for three minutes,
”
Walt said.

The zombies at the previous connecting door became more aggressive and violent and their damage to the door was already extensive. The room filled with the loud sound of the hinges being torn from the wall.

“Make it one minute,
”
Walt said as he heard the door breaking.

Butsko opened the connecting door, and they all ran through it and headed to the far side of the lab.

The zombie’s crashed into the storage lab and raced toward the door the group had just run through. The zombies slowed down when they saw the six microwave ovens blocking their path.

As the microwaves counted down to zero, the over doors exploded outwards and slivers of glass tore into the creature’s faces and bodies. The sparks from the steel wool ignited the fumes and flammable liquids and created fireballs that set three of the zombies on fire. The explosions inside the ovens tore them apart as jagged metal ripped into the zombies skin, severing arteries, puncturing eyeballs, and embedding into the zombies’ skulls.

Wilder and the others ducked as they heard the ovens explode. They were on the other side of the door, but they all instinctively crouched to the floor as the explosion rocked the ground.

After the explosion, Wilder ran to the connecting door and looked through the small viewing window. The zombies on fire had collapsed to the ground and burned. The other yellow-eyed creatures that were injured stumbled around, and Wilder knew it wouldn’t be long before they attacked again.

“Steele! Walt!
”
Wilder shouted to the others. “Let’s finish these fuckers off!”

Wilder opened the door and ran toward the closest creature. He slammed the butt of his carbine into the creature’s head. As the zombie dropped, he stomped on its head until it stopped moving.

Walt swung Stevie at one of the blinded zombies and snapped its neck with the force of the blow. Walt finished it off by smashing Stevie into the creature’s forehead.

Walt and Wilder turned to see Steele crushing the heads and kneecaps of the creatures with the sledgehammer. They watched as Steele gracefully turned and pivoted and crushed the skulls of four more yellow-eyed creatures. They could see the bloodlust in Steele’s eyes and they let him go. Every skull he smashed, every zombie he destroyed, Steele was making amends for failing to save his family.

When Steele was finished, he dropped the sledgehammer and leaned over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Around him lay the bodies of four or five mangled zombies. It was hard to tell how many Steele had killed. There was so much blood and so many body parts scattered around him that it looked like somebody had put the bodies through a meat grinder.

“Come on, big guy,
”
Wilder said to Steele as he picked up the sledgehammer. “Let’s get to the others.”

*****

As the three warriors left the room, they left behind the burned and broken bodies of seven yellow-eyed creatures. Their bodies remained motionless, but inside them the bio-nanotech virus was still alive. The virus worked to rebuild bone and repair flesh. Being so close to The Discovery had energized and morphed the virus into something more deadly.

As the fires extinguished on the three zombies, they were the first to twitch and once again experience re-birth.

The three charred things sat up, looked toward the door, then to the other creatures that lay on the floor. They were lifeless right now, but they knew it wouldn’t be long before those broken bodies would rejoin the fight.