Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (43 page)

The Discovery wanted Earth, and if its occupants wouldn’t obey, then they would be destroyed. The Discovery had thought that the first generation of infection would do the job, but had underestimated the tenacity and survival instincts of humanity.

It wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Fi kept her hand against The Discovery until she heard a group of humans enter the laboratory. She caressed the object as she ran her hand along it. When she removed her hand, the humming she felt throughout her body ceased, so she went to place her hand back on The Discovery. The humans were getting closer, and Fi gazed one last time at The Discovery before quietly hiding in the shadows. She knew the humans wouldn’t know what the object was. The Discovery was safe. Fi sent out a thought to the other yellow-eyed creatures to come down to this lab and protect her and The Discovery.

They obeyed.

The Discovery gave Fi one last instruction. It wanted her to infect one of the humans. It wanted her to recruit one of them for the upcoming war.

Fi hid as the humans approached The Discovery.

16

Inside the Sub-Level Facility, Schoepke Springs

Present Time

After Cheryl regained her composure, she saw Steele and Wilder talking with a few other men. She felt Stevie’s wooden handle but dared not look at her hand. Stevie was Walt’s weapon, his anchor. Stevie wasn’t just a deadly instrument, it was a symbol of what Walt had accomplished in his life. Walt had transformed himself and his life and had gone from living on the streets to being the director of one of the most respected drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities in the country. Anyone could look at Stevie and see how many years it had taken Walt to change his life. Those nails represented his struggle. Just as Walt had struggled to hammer each of those nails through the bat, he had struggled every day with his sobriety.

Stevie was all that was left of Walt and his legacy, and Cheryl would hang onto the nail-studded baseball bat until her last dying breath.

“Are you okay?
”
Wilder asked Cheryl as he walked over to her. He extended his hand and helped her off the floor.

“I’m sorry I broke down like that,
”
Cheryl said.

“Don’t be,
”
said Wilder, stone-faced.

“I’m sorry about Butsko,
”
Cheryl said as she lowered her head. “He was a good man.”

“Yeah, he was,
”
Wilder said. Wilder followed Cheryl’s gaze as she looked at the strangers. “If you thought shit was weird before, brace yourself,
”
Wilder said to Cheryl with no hint of humor in his voice.

Cheryl heard the zombies as they banged and thrashed against the hatch door, but the strangers didn’t seem worried at all.

“My name is Josef,
”
said the thin man with John Lennon-style glasses. The man was average height, but walked with an air of confidence that made him seem sixty-feet tall. The man had a receding hairline and thin lips that barely parted when he spoke.

Cheryl recognized the name.

“Wait,
”
Cheryl said as she suddenly remembered. “Josef
Schoepke
?
”
she asked.

“I see my name and reputation precede me,
”
Josef said as his thin lips curled to form a reptilian smile. “I seem to be at a disadvantage.”

“This is Cheryl,
”
Wilder said as he put his hand on Cheryl’s shoulder. “Over there is Steele, and I’m Wilder. How long have you been down here?”

“A long time,
”
said Josef, and offered no other details. “It seems the world has fallen into chaos.”

“Chaos?
”
Steele said as he took a step forward. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Millions of people are dead up there including my family.”

“I apologize,
”
Josef said insincerely. “I don’t mean to come off cold. It’s been a while since my friends and I have had contact with other human beings.”

Cheryl looked around the large room and saw a wall of monitors. Each monitor displayed a particular part of the property. Cheryl saw all the cameras both inside and outside that facility, and now she knew where they led.

“How long have you been watching us?
”
Cheryl asked.

“Since the moment you arrived at the front gates,
”
Josef answered as he pointed to the monitor that showed the front gate.

“You’ve been tracking our every move?
”
Cheryl said as her temper rose. “Why didn’t you help us you son of a bitch?”

“We couldn’t risk exposure,
”
Josef said. “This might just be the safest place left on Earth,
”
he added as he swung his arms around the room.

“That was a good idea you had with the EMP bomb,
”
one of the people from the monitors said as he looked over. “My name’s Howard—Howard Palmnitz. I am… was one of the chief scientists in Section C.”

“What exactly goes on in Section C?
”
asked Wilder as he looked around.

Before Howard could answer, Josef responded.

“Things you couldn’t even begin to wrap your heads around,
”
Josef said.

“Try us,
”
Wilder said as his eyes narrowed, and his voice became ice cold. “You wouldn’t believe some of the things we’ve seen out there.”

“What the hell is that strange, black metallic object up there behind the plastic?
”
Steele asked.

The four scientists by the computer monitors looked at another man who hadn’t said anything yet.

“That, my friends,
”
said the strange man, “is the million-dollar question, isn’t it?”

“Fuck me,
”
Steele said as he moved back towards the hatch. “I’d rather take my chances up there than listen to this cryptic bullshit.”

“Again,
”
said Josef, “I apologize. It has been a very long time since we’ve had visitors.”

“Who are you?
”
Wilder said as he directed his question to the strange man.

The man stood there in silence as he stared Wilder in the eyes. Neither man blinked nor turned away. Cheryl guessed the man before him was in his sixties, even though his muscular physique made him look about a decade younger. She also saw the scars that littered the man’s arms and neck and what looked like a tattoo that had been removed from the man’s forearm. This man had the confidence of someone with power. Not just physical power, but the power that came from holding a certain position.

The man finally broke the stare. “My name’s John Rickard,
”
he said.

“I know you,
”
Wilder said. “We’ve met before a long time ago.”

“That’s very possible,
”
Rickard said. “I’ve been to many places.”

“Mr. Rickard,
”
Josef said, “is the member of a powerful…”

“Think tank,
”
Rickard said before Josef could finish. “I was one of the charter members of what used to be an important think tank. I was sent here to try and help Josef and the other scientists figure out how to stop the infection.”

“So tell me,
”
Rickard asked Wilder. “What made you think the EMP bomb would kill those things out there?”

Wilder explained that, since the infection was essentially technology-based, that he and Butsko had planned on frying the nanites.

“Ah,
”
said Rickard. “So you know about the nature of the infection, then?”

“Of course we do,
”
Wilder said. “The damn thing started in military labs. Butsko was originally brought in to discover what the infection was and how to stop it.”

“We also figured out how the infection manipulates the brain,
”
Cheryl said. “At least Walt did.
”
Cheryl went on to tell the Josef, Rickard, and the scientists Walt’s theory on how the nanites manipulated the dopamine levels in the brain. Cheryl finished by telling them about Walt’s antipsychotic drugs and how they worked on the creatures without the yellow eyes, but how they were useless against the new yellow-eyed creatures.

“You’re a smart bunch,
”
Josef said as his eyes narrowed. “I guess you’d have to be to have survived all this time.”

“Yeah, well, we all didn’t survive,
”
Cheryl said.

“I think it is time for you to fill us in on what you know,
”
Wilder said. “I get the feeling we’ve missed an important piece of the puzzle, and you’ve all been sitting on it down here.”

Josef and Rickard looked at each other.

“Yes, yes,
”
Josef started. “You have indeed missed an important piece of the puzzle.
”
Josef walked over to one of the computer consoles and inserted a CD-ROM disc. Wilder, Cheryl, and Steele watched as the monitor came to life.

17

Undisclosed Location

Pacific Ocean

1979

John Rickard jumped from the helicopter as it touched down on the oil tanker. There were no numbers on the side of this vessel, and it didn’t even have a name. The tanker belonged to The Council, and as far as the rest of the world was concerned, neither it, the ship, nor The Council itself existed.

The oil tanker looked like an old, rusted bucket of bolts to any observer, but inside the ship were state-of-the-art research labs and all the equipment necessary to execute search and rescue missions.

“You’ve located it, right?
”
Rickard asked the man who greeted him at the helicopter.

“We’re literally floating over it as we speak,
”
answered the man.

Jim Dolenz and Rickard had been recruited into The Council around the same time. They each possessed different skill sets The Council valued. Jim was older, in his late forties, with a shaved head, and always seemed to have a five o’clock shadow. Just like Rickard, Jim had an icy stare and more battle scars than most people have had hot meals.

“Two of the submersibles have already located it and are keeping watch over it,
”
Jim said. “The info we’re getting back from the submersibles says the object is dead.”

“There’s no sign of activity or life at all?
”
Rickard asked Jim.

“None at all,
”
Jim answered.

“Well, that
is
a shame,
”
Rickard said as he looked out at the water.

The huge cranes already had thick, unbreakable cables around the object. They’d gotten lucky when the object had come to rest on a shelf. Below was a chasm of unknown depth.

“Sir!
”
a man yelled over to Jim. “The submersibles are in place and have connected the cables!”

“Bring it up!
”
Jim yelled back.

The man gave the thumbs up sign toward the crane operators and they pulled some levers and began to raise the object from the ocean shelf. The crane effortlessly brought the object up.

Everyone on the tanker saw the two submersibles first. A large door on the side of the tanker silently slid open as the submersibles navigated into the tanker.

The cranes continued to lift the object up through the water, and as it broke the surface, everyone’s eyes were fixed on the sight before them. The smooth black metallic object was oval shaped with no discernible edges.

And it was large.

Rickard figured the object was at least five times larger than the space shuttle Enterprise.

As the object was lifted from the water, everyone could hear a creaking sound. Before Rickard could say anything, a large section of the object broke off, splashed back into the ocean, and immediately sank. What was left dangling from the cables was brought up to the tanker.

“Get those submersibles back in the water immediately!
”
Rickard shouted. Within seconds the side of the tank opened, and the subs were on their way.

After a few minutes, Jim got an update from the submersibles.

“Dammit!
”
Jim shouted into the handset. “Are you absolutely sure?
”
Jim turned to Rickard to update him. “It is lost. The object that broke off fell into the chasm. We have no idea how deep it is, but the subs chased it as far as they could.”