Outbreak: The Hunger (13 page)

It was Butsko’s idea to use a combination of military and civilian lab resources.  The military side was supposed to work on the more cutting-edge aspect of the project.  Who could have foreseen the breakthrough the project was waiting for?  He knew the researchers in the Austin civilian lab were good, but he underestimated just how good they were.  When he approached them with a government grant to further their research, they were practically crying with joy.  Grant money had been hard to come by in the civilian sector.

Then those kids had to fuck everything up.  Butsko felt his face getting red with anger just thinking about those three who broke into the lab and freed all those animals.  They were still cleaning up that mess.  They tracked most of them down to an animal shelter in Hyde Park, but he knew his men hadn’t tracked, trapped, and cleaned them all.  When that panicked woman called from the shelter, he knew he’d lucked out.  Of course, they’d had all the animals tagged with tiny computer chips, but every single one had malfunctioned.

“Okay, soldier,” he says to Wilder. “You have five minutes.  What’s on your mind?”

They walk to one of the lesser chaotic corners of the corridor.  “Colonel,” Wilder starts. “That man in the van …”

“What about him, Dan?”

“Sir, he was dead for over half the trip.”  Wilder and Butsko’s eyes  lock into a fierce stare.  “The monitors,” Wilder continues, “were completely silent, and even after his eyes opened and he started regaining consciousness, the monitors still had no activity.  One minute he was dead, and the next he wasn’t.”

Butsko stares at Wilder.  “You find this odd?” Butsko finally asks.  “You’ve had your chance to walk away from here, Dan.  If you really want to know the answers, then you are mine from here on out.” 

“What the fuck is going on here… Sir?”

“Effective immediately: you, Laning, and Reynolds  now work exclusively for this facility, its security, and for The Project.”  Wilder doesn’t blink or budge.  “Dan,” Butsko continues, “you have to stop thinking in terms of black and white.  Technology has developed to the point where we can manipulate the black and white, so there’s an indefinite amount of shaded areas. We have stumbled upon one such shaded area and that’s what this project is about.  We’re here to save lives.”

“Save lives?” Wilder asks.  “That man in the van was dead.”

“‘
Was
’,” Butsko corrects, “is the keyword.”

5

The group has been walking along the railroad tracks for about twenty minutes.  John could feel the eyes of the predators on them.  John knew the animals were out there, but he didn’t say anything. John suspected the others were feeling the same way.

I look around and see that Willie and some of the kids are starting to lag behind.  We need to stay together.  “How about we take a couple minutes break everyone?” I ask.  Everyone immediately stops and finds a place to sit down.  Looking around, I think this probably isn’t the best place to stop. We’ve settled into the gorge cut through the rock. The only way out is to keep moving forward. If the animals attacked us here, we’d be trapped. Just as I’m about to tell the group we should move out of the gorge, Julie breaks the silence.

“John, I think now would be a good time to fill us all in on what you know.  I told you what happened at my shelter and what led me here.  Now it’s your turn.”  The others in the group all agree. 

I know it’s useless to argue, so I take a drink of water before beginning.  “I don’t know what the hell is going on any more than you all do.  All I know is one more piece of the puzzle.  It may not even be connected to what’s happening out here.” 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed,” Susan says, “but there’s a lot of very weird shit going on around here.”

“Did anyone hear about or witness what happened over at the monkey cages about an hour and a half ago?”  Everyone shakes their heads.  “Well, we noticed that a lot of the animals were missing.”  I put my hand on Fi’s head.  “There’s usually four lemurs in the cage, and today there were only two.  The Colobus monkey and a few tigers are also missing.”

“Well, I think we found all the missing animals,” Kyle says.

I continue:  “We also saw what looked like pools of blood in most of the cages, and when we were at the Patas monkey cage, we ran into this guy who was acting really strange.  He seemed to notice all the aggressive behavior and missing animals as well.”

“Who was he?” Julie asks.

“He wore the same uniforms the zoo volunteers wear.  His name tag read ‘Sean.’” I wait to see if anyone has anything to offer.  Silence.

“This is your story?” Kyle asks.  “This is what you didn’t want to tell us?”  Willie gives him another quick smack upside his head.

“Just listen, Kyle,” Willie tells him.  That brings a small smile to everyone’s face.

“When I told him that we noticed the odd behavior of the animals as well, he started asking us a ton of questions.  He was kind of babbling and he looked really scared.” 

“Is that it?” Kyle asks, flinching as if expecting another smack from his dad.

“No.  Then, as we were talking, three men dressed in full combat gear rushed out of the woods and contained him.”  Julie’s eyes spark up as soon as I mention the soldiers.

“There were soldiers in full combat gear?” Julie asks.  “That… can’t be a coincidence.”

“I know.  These guys said they were a private security firm, but I’d bet my last dollar they were military.”

“What did they do to that man?” Susan asks with a shaky voice.

“They cuffed him and said to the growing crowd that he was wanted for acts of domestic terrorism.”  Everyone’s eyes stay on me.  “Look,” I continue, “I only met that guy for, like, ten minutes, and nothing about him screamed out that he was dangerous.  In fact, right before those men arrested him, he was saying something about ‘saving them’ and ‘liberating them.’” Looking at Julie, I see her turn pale white again.

“Could he have been talking about animals?” she asks to no one in particular.  Then she looks straight at me and asks  “That man…could he have been talking about liberating animals?”

Before I have a chance to answer, everyone turns as we hear a loud growl coming from behind us.  Everyone stands and bunches together.  I put Fi behind me quickly.  I try to see where the growl is coming from, but my eye is too cloudy to see anything.

“What the fuck was that?” Jessica screams.

No one answers because no one has an answer.  We are all staring into the trees.  I knew we shouldn’t have stopped here.  It suddenly feels like we are in a trap.  The path behind us is blocked  some growling monster, and in front of us the trees are beginning to shake violently.  These fucking animals have us trapped. 

6

My adrenaline dumps into my system as I look around.  The animals have surrounded us, and the sight in my left eye -my
good
eye- has deteriorated to the point where all I can see are vague shapes.  Julie is huddled up next to Fi and me.  I have to take precautions.

“Julie,” I whisper. “I need you to do something for me.” 

Not breaking her surveillance, she whispers back, “What is it?”

“If something happens to me, I need you to take care of Fi and make sure she gets out of here safely.
”

“Look,” she replies. “We’ll all be fine as long as we stick together.  No more heroics from you, okay,” she says, forcing a smile.

“No… look… it goes beyond our situation.  I can barely see out of my left eye.  All I can see are rough shapes of things.  Everything is cloudy.”  She is about to question me, but I cut her off. “I’ll explain it later.  Right now, just please promise me you’ll take care of Fi if something happens.”

“Of course I will, but let’s not let it come down to that.  Stick close to me and I’ll be our eyes.”  Julie is something.  Here I am asking her to take care of my little girl in case something happens, and she offers to put herself in harm’s way just to get us through this. I nod my approval of the plan.

Without warning, an ear-piercing howl shakes the trees and draws all of us  closer together.

I can’t help myself. I have to say something to the group.  “Look, everyone. We’re trapped by these things.  They’re up on high ground and have our only two possible escape routes cut off.”  I let that sink in. When no one said anything, I continue,  “We need to stay together.  Grab anything you can use as a weapon.  A branch, pointy rocks, anything, and if you have the opportunity to hurt one of these things, take it.  Don’t hesitate.”

“I work in a goddamn bank,” whines Kyle,  “I’m not Rambo.  We’ve all seen how fast these things can kill.  How the fuck are we supposed to kill them with sticks and rocks?”  Willie doesn’t smack him this time.

“Get it together!” Jessica shouts.  “I already lost my husband to these things.  I’m not gonna lose my son too.”

“Let’s not lose it guys,” I say.  “Remem…”  The rest of that word gets caught in my throat.  That all-too-familiar orange-brown flash comes shooting out of the bushes above us.  I can see its cloudy shape as it rockets toward the group.  “Here it comes everyone!” I shout.  “Get the kids in the middle of us.”

It is too late.  That son of a bitch tiger doesn’t slow down for a second as it tears through our tight group, slashing its way through Susan and Willie.  It is almost as if it is specifically going for…

“Protect the kids!” I shout too late.  In one fluid motion, the tiger carves a path through the adults, like a hot knife through butter, to get to the kids.  I have a death grip on Fi and she is grabbing my leg so tight that I think she is going to cut off my circulation.

We all hear a muffled cry as Tom, Susan’s eight-year-old son, is snatched up by the tiger.  Susan doesn’t even realize her son is gone.  She is still reeling from having her arm flayed open to the bone.

“Jesus Christ!” Kyle is screaming in a high-pitched voice.  “That thing just cut right through us!”

I can see Julie still looking around at the trees and bushes.  “I don’t think they’re done yet.”

“Where’s Tommy?” Susan starts screaming.  “Where the fuck is my son?  Oh my God
… no!
”
she screams.  She was hitting her breaking point and I can’t blame her.  Her son, who was standing right next to her, was taken from her without her even realizing it.  “Someone please help me!”  She is becoming hysterical.  “I need to get my son.”  She starts to break away from the group, and that’s when she realizes her arm is stripped to the bone.

“Susan,” Willie says. “You need to stay with the group.  I don’t think they’re done yet.”

As if on cue, three animals burst through the bushes, rushing toward us.  They aren’t as fast as the tiger.  One looks like the monkey I saw on the train, a bear, and… a goat.  I can’t help myself. I actually laugh out loud as the absurdity of the situation hits me like a shovel to the face.  We are being attacked by a fucking goat.  Last week, Fi fed a little fucker just like it from her own hands.

Julie elbows me in the ribs and shoots me a look.  “Only one person per attack is allowed to crack up.  Are you with me?” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m with you.  Damn you have a boney elbow.” 

The monkey is almost upon us.  We’ve been coming to this zoo a long time.  The biggest species of monkey they have is called the Capuchin.  On average, they stand about two feet tall and weigh about five pounds.  “Fuck me,” I whisper. “That monkey is at least three times bigger than any of the ones in the zoo.”  It is fast.  Too fast
. 
“What the fuck is happening here?” I ask.

I notice the same thing about the goat.  They normally aren’t known for their grace and speed, but the one charging us is fast.  Real fast. 
Could the rabies virus make an animal faster
? I ask. 
Since when do goats have sharp teeth
?  The goat is charging, teeth bared, as if it is ready to sink them into the first thing, or person, it gets to.

Then, behind the goat, comes the black bear.  I’ve seen on nature specials that bears can run pretty fast, but this one is more agile than a gymnast.  It is leaping over fallen trees and large rocks, the whole time its icy gaze focused on us.  It seems to purposely stay behind the monkey and goat, almost as if it is letting the other two animals get to us first.

And they do.

We all huddle tightly together.  A few of us hold sticks in front of us, hoping one of those animals will impale itself.  I don’t see that happening.  These animals are too smart and agile for that, and now seem to have a purpose.  It no longer appears that they are randomly attacking us.  Thinking back, the first person they killed was the train conductor, and then they systematically attacked anyone who tried to call for help.  Now… no.  I can’t start thinking like this.  My mind is searching to make sense out this situation and is beginning to create connections that just aren’t there.  Next thing I know I’ll be creating some big, elaborate conspiracy theory. 

I shake my head, re-focusing on the situation.  The monkey reaches the group first.  With no hesitation, it lunges after Cassie.  Cassie is hunched closer to the ground with Amber tightly between her arms.  Cassie looks up to see the monkey airborne and coming straight at her. She doesn’t have time to react.