The Demented Z (Book 3): Contagion (9 page)

The two of them worked back to the serving area of the
kitchen. Tom dropped down into a cubby
next to the entrance where he had a good sight line of the cafeteria main
doors. Hannah used a large ice maker as
cover and positioned herself to have an open view of the hall entrance they had
come through.
Come get some
, Tom thought to himself.

******

After splitting off from the others, Hank moved silently
down the long hall, ignoring the doors on the sides.
  To go through each room would take much too
long and he figured if anyone capable was inside, they would have come out
during the shooting. He passed several
sets of doors before arriving at an intersection where the hall continued
forward and split off to the right.  
Light spilled in at the far end, drawing Hank down the side hall.

Halfway down the hall he picked up on a strange noise coming
from one of the doors. The
humming
sounded like a fan or small
motor. He started to move along the
hall, but stopped after a few steps, not liking the idea of leaving this
unknown behind him.

Quietly shouldering his rifle, he unclipped the crossbow
from his belt ring and held it out in front.  
With his offhand he carefully twisted the doorknob.
  It turned with a slight
click
. The swollen door
wedged in the jam, requiring a decent shove to free it.
  The ragged squeal of wood rubbing on wood
caused him to grimace.

The room was shrouded in darkness, only the faint hallway
light spilled in. Even with the door open
he was unable to see what was making the noise.  
Alarms were going off in his mind.  
Fear and panic rose in his throat, nearly making him back out.
  He pushed the feelings back down, knowing
they would never leave if he didn’t resolve this right now.

It was too dark to see anything and he didn’t want his
flashlight giving away his location, so he carefully closed the door,
blanketing himself in pitch black. His
heart hammered in his chest. He slid the
flashlight out of his belt pouch, desperately feeling for the button to
activate it. With a click the bright
light shot out, casting a harsh glow across the floor at Hank’s feet.
  Plastic pink caps dotted the floor.
  He raised the flashlight and was startled
when he found the source of the noise.

The emaciated man was nearly skeletal from lack of
food. His dirty, torn clothes barely
clung to what was left of his body. The
man had his back to Hank and was clawing at the wall.
  His fingers had worn through the sheetrock
and found the plywood beneath. The wood
was rubbed smooth and the man’s fingers had been worn to bloody stumps as he
continued to scrape away relentlessly.

Between Hank and the man was a makeshift cage created out of
bed frames and barbed wire. Hank stepped
up to the fence, standing just a couple feet away from the man.
  He either did not notice Hank’s presence or
could not pull himself from the task at hand.

Hank shown the light on the floor at the
man’s feet and found more of the pink caps as well as some spent syringes.
  He followed the pink trail until his light
hit on a small corner table that had a clipboard and two boxes sitting on
top. A quick glance in the boxes
revealed one with used syringes and another with neatly organized glass vials
and a stack of disposable syringe packs.

He grabbed the clipboard and looked over the top sheet.
  It had columns filled with dates, times, and
signatures. The last date marked was
nearly two months ago. Nothing else was
written to give away the purpose of either the syringes or the clipboard’s
records. One of the vials didn’t offer
many more answers. The tiny labels were
only marked with “VX00241.”

Not wanting to spend any more time in this creepy room Hank
raised his crossbow and moved over toward the man.
  “Hey, you there?”
  Hank said.  
He waited a few seconds and then added, “Hey.”
  No response.  
With a click, he released a bolt.  
It streaked across the small span, striking the man in the back of the
skull. Like a ragdoll he collapsed to
the floor, ending the mind numbing scrapping noise.
  An eerie silence washed over the small room.

Hank stood there for a moment, watching the fallen man and
eyeing the bolt embedded in his head.  
Deciding that it wasn’t worth the risk, Hank pulled a bolt off the top
of the crossbow and reloaded the weapon.  
He clipped the crossbow back to his belt ring and pulled the rifle from
his shoulder. Before opening the door he
clicked his flashlight off and listened for several seconds.

Once in the hall he continued moving toward the window at
the far end. Each door he passed made
him wonder what lay behind.
  Were there more test subjects or whatever that
was?
He could only guess what was
going on, but it seemed likely they were testing hopeful cures on the man.

Eight feet away from the window the hall split again.
  On his left a narrow stairway led to the
third floor. Leaving the stairs for
later, Hank tucked in close to the wall and slowly moved toward the
window. He tried to stay tucked to the
wall using the shadows as much as possible.

It was just as he stepped up to the window that the glass
shattered and white hot pain shot through his neck and shoulder.
  He dropped to the floor, landing on the
shards of glass. Another boom sounded
and a round slammed into the wall above him.  
Drywall debris flew into the air.  
Hank lay on his side using his feet to slide along the floor.
  Warm blood oozed from his neck and shoulder.

Once he reached the corner that led to the stairs he dragged
himself into the narrow opening and rose to a sitting position on the first
step. “Son of a…
ahhh …man that hurts.”
  He grumbled to himself.
  His hand went to his neck, feeling the
gash. His fingers probed the torn flesh
and he was glad to find that it wasn’t very deep.
  The round had been fired from down low,
catching the edge of his shoulder and winging his neck as it passed up toward
the top of the wall. “Dirtbags.” He
said under his breath. As the blood
slowed, he rose back to a standing position and turned, heading up the worn
stairs.

******

When the shots rang out, Axel grabbed April by the arm, “We’re
not sitting in here.” He began to pull
her to her feet.

“They said to stay here.”

“No way, we’re trapped.”

She had a panicked look on her face.
  The thought of going back out there, with
only Axel, terrified her. “The plan was
–“

“They’re going to leave us.”

“They’ll come back.”

He forced her to standing.  
“We’re leaving.”

Tom jumped when the shots rang out.
  They sounded close…maybe just outside the
cafeteria. He was almost sure they were
from outside, ground level, which would mean it was from the ghosts.
  Hannah must have thought the same thing,
because her head turned and she was looking directly toward the wall that lay
between them and the outside. Tom gave
her a “stay put” motion, knowing that unless there were more shots they had to
hope someone would get antsy and start moving into the building.

It didn’t take very long.  
Tom heard it before he saw it; the slight metallic
rattle of a doorknob. A sliver of
light cut across the floor of the cafeteria.  
With a barely audible
creak
the door continued to swing open and the swath of light grew until it lit most
of the cafeteria tables.

Tom’s heart pounded in his chest.
  His body knew it was go time and began
pumping adrenaline through his veins. He
tried to take a few steadying breaths, knowing he had to control the
energy. His grip tightened on his rifle
as he tucked back into the shadows as much as possible.

Hannah on the other hand had never been so ready for
something in her life. This is exactly
what she had been waiting for, and they finally had a tactical advantage.
  She held the rifle tight to her shoulder and
used her thumb to double check that the safety was off.
  She knew it was off and also knew she would
check it again in about fifteen seconds, but it helped calm her nerves.

A rifle barrel poked through the open doorway, followed by a
man in camo.  
He was slightly crouched with his rifle tight to his shoulder, eyes
focused on a quick acquisition scope mounted to the top of his M4.
  He checked left and right for any immediate
threats and then began to work heel to toe across the cafeteria.
  His trajectory would take him right in front
of Tom and Hannah. He was oblivious to
the fact that he would soon be entering their kill zone.

Tom wanted to interrogate the man, but knew it would be very
risky to remain exposed after shouting the rifle out of his hands.
  He was just about to twist into the opening
and light the guy up when the man suddenly dropped out of sight behind a table.
 
Tom
eyed the table. Had he seen me…or Hannah?
  Why did he suddenly hide?

From the hall Tom and Hannah had entered through came the
soft sound of a whispering voice. It was
too low to make out the words, but this is surely why Camo
ducked down. Tom couldn’t see the
opening from his vantage point, but as the voices got closer he recognized one
of them as April’s.
What are they doing?
Tom was
pissed. They were going to walk right to
their deaths unless Tom or Hannah did something.

Tom slowly twisted his head to see what Hannah was
doing. She had her eyes focused on the
open doorway, surely watching them enter.  
Her face dripped intensity, focus oozing from his pores.

The whispering voices got louder.
  He had to do something.
  With a slight twist he was able to get his
rifle pointed through the open doorway.
Cack
…cack …cack …
He sent
three rounds into the table Camo had disappeared
behind. Wood splintered and small holes
ripped through the thinly paneled tabletop.

April let out a wicked scream.

Rifle fire erupted from behind the overturned table.

Tom could just make out the muzzle flash near the front edge
of a tipped over chair. He fired off a
volley of shots near the floor. A shout
of pain issued from the other side.

“Kitchen!
  In the kitchen!”
  The man shouted.

Hannah’s rifle
roared
as she sent shots into Camo’s hideout.
 

Tom rattled off another volley as well.
  Wood chips flew into the air as holes were
hammered into the furniture. The
withering gunfire left the table in ruins.  
Giant chunks of wood were missing, leaving gaping holes like portals on
ship. Through one of these Tom could see
the man’s camouflage clothing. It was
motionless.

Tom jumped when there was a
thud
at the kitchen door behind them.
 
Boom…boom…
  Someone was pounding the door into the table
he and Hannah had slid in front.

The banging stopped.  
“Frank! You in
there?” Someone shouted from the
other side. Whispering followed.

Tom strained to hear what was being said, but it was
unintelligible. He looked over at
Hannah. She had a view of the door and
was staring straight at it. With a twist
she spun around and pointed her rifle directly at the door.
  Her rifle thundered and kicked with three
rapid shots. Brass shell casings
ricocheted off the wall, landed on the tile, and rolled slowly toward Tom’s
feet. An eerie silence followed.

While Hannah kept an eye on the door, Tom spun around and
watched the cafeteria.
Camo remained in place behind the obliterated table and
chair.

“We should move.”  
Hannah said.

Tom agreed. The
remaining ghosts knew their location and nothing good could come from
that. “Good plan.”

He was just beginning to rise to his feet when loud voices
forced him back to a kneeling position.  
They were crazy loud and rapidly getting even louder.
  An object slid into view in the center of the
cafeteria, near Camo’s body.
  The voices were emanating from the device.
The old tape recorder was blaring an old Cosby standup
routine and the roar of laughter was extremely out of place.

A
bang
sounded
from outside the building.

Tom pointed his rifle at the tape player and squeezed the
trigger. The round went high, narrowly
missing the noise box. He pulled the
trigger again, but nothing. He swiftly
dropped the empty mag out and reached to his chest pouch for a spare.

Shrieks and growls sounded from just outside the cafeteria
double doors. The pounding of feet, like
rolling thunder, raced in front of the horde that was drawn to the sound of
human voices. Tom slammed the fresh mag
into the well and charged the weapon. A
quick squeeze of the trigger ended the standup routine, but the damage was
already done. Giant shadows were
sprinting into the room.

“We need to move.”  
Hannah said as she back peddled away from the stainless counter.

Tom rose to a half crouch and looked to the hall entrance
that Axel and April were last at. The
shadowed entryway sat empty. Out of the
corner of his eye he saw the first demented racing into view.
  The entryway was out of reach and he knew
it. Hannah did as well; she was already
turning for the rear door. Tom stayed
low and followed after her, hoping the demented would not notice either of them.

Hannah reached the door with the counter pulled in front and
hesitated.

“What’s up?” Tom
whispered as he raced up next to her.

“They’re trying to flush us out.
  They’ll be waiting to gun us down.”

Tom knew she was right.  
His throat tightened as he heard the guttural growls of demented behind
them. They were filling the cafeteria
and would soon be spilling into the kitchen.  
Tom spun around surveying the area.

“Over here.” He said
, spotting what he hoped would save them.

The two of them ran over to the large walk in freezer door
and Tom yanked on the heavy handle. The
stench of rot washed over them. Hannah
covered her mouth with her sleeve and headed into the dark opening.
  Tom took a look back and wondered if they
should try to shoot their way out, but he had no idea how many infected there
would be. He checked the heavy door to
make sure it had an interior latch release and once he saw the red paddle
button he stepped into the darkness and pulled the door closed behind him.
  The ominous click shrouded them in pitch
black silence.

******

Kelly could smell the smoke before she could see it.
  The acrid smell was more than just smoke; it
was the un-natural scent of man made products burning.
  When the plume came into view through the
trees it was deep black and emanating from multiple locations.

For what seemed like the first time since leaving the cabin,
she eased off the throttle. The old
snowmobile had done better than she ever could have hoped for.
  Floating over the snow she was easily able to
dodge any infected she saw and they were able to quickly outdistance any that
tried to follow. As she eased off the
throttle, the engine began to sputter, so she sped back up, not wanting it to
die.

The giant log wall came into full view as she shot out of
the thick stand of trees and into an open field.
  Most of the snow was gone, but the skids slid
easily across the matted down field grass.  
Smoke rolled upwards from behind the fortress wall.
  Orange flames licked angrily at the billowing
darkness as it escaped skyward. There
looked to be three separate fires inside the compound.

Once she was within twenty yards of the wall she slowed to a
stop, hesitating with indecision. She
tried to listen, but the rumble of the snowmobile drowned out any noises that
might be present. The engine made the
decision for her when it sputtered and went silent.
  Shouts and screams made Kelly’s neck hair
stand on end.

Sam sat between her and the handlebars.
  He slowly twisted his head around, looking up
at his mom with curious eyes. His face
was pale as he took in rapid breaths trying desperately to get oxygen to his
liquid filled lungs. His mouth opened to
say something, but then closed again, leaving whatever it was unsaid.

“Okay hun , we have to try.”
  She said while standing up next to the
snowmobile. After a quick glance all
around, she left her rifle shouldered and helped Sam to his feet.
  Despite his size, she lifted him up and
packed him toward the small man sized door next to the huge metal gate.
  She eyed the guard towers that overlooked the
entrance, and she was glad to see them both unmanned.
  At least she thought that was a good thing.

The man door was locked from the inside, which she
expected. “Stay right here.”
  She said while leaning Sam up against the
wall. Looking over the giant gate, she
found it locked as well. Wire and sheet
metal covered a pair of green tube gates that had been welded together.
  Along the edge, closest to the hinges, she
found enough foot and hand holds to begin climbing.
  The metal shook and rattled as she made her
way to the top.

Her head cleared the upper rail, allowing a view of what lay
inside. It reminded her of the Sunday
morning shows where they asked people to donate money for third world countries
where children were struggling. The mix
of houses, tents, and shacks was astounding.  
The nearest fire was a small camp trailer fully engulfed in flames.
  A couple people stood well away, arms
crossed, rifles over their shoulders. A
woman sat on her knees a half dozen paces in front of
them. There were two other structures on
fire, but they were farther back in the town and she couldn’t see the exact source.

It was while she was climbing back down the other side that
people started shouting from somewhere inside the town.
  She dropped to the ground.
  More shouts, getting closer.
  She rushed over to the door and pulled back a
large metal locking bar. Shouts and pounding
feet grew louder. Sam still leaned
against the wall, looking down at the ground.  
She helped him through the entryway and closed the door.

“Don’t move!” A man
shouted.

Kelly slowly spun around.  
Two men stood twenty feet away with their rifles aimed directly at
her. Neither of them lowered their
barrels when they saw it was a woman and her child.
  “He’s sick, we need help.”
  She said.

Both men took a couple steps back.

“Not like that. He’s
not infected.”

“Stay away.” One of
the men shouted.

The other one lowered his rifle a few inches.
  “Both of you go right back out that door.”

“He has pneumonia.”

“I don’t care what he’s got, get out.”

Kelly held a hand out and took a slow step forward.
  “Please –“

“Stop!
  One more step and we will shoot both of you.”

Kelly wasn’t about to give up.
  She didn’t come all this way to leave empty
handed. Sam needed medicine or he would die.
  “Antibiotics…we just need antibiotics.”

“Out!”

“He’s not turning.”  
She shouted back angrily.

“I’m giving you ten seconds.  
If you’re still here we’re going to shoot.”

“Antibiotics and we will leave.”

“Ten…nine…”

Kelly wasn’t sure if they would really shoot a woman and
child, but she also didn’t want to find out.  
“Please.”

“Eight…seven…six…”

The man that had previously lowered his rifle a few inches
now raised it back up, barrel pointing directly at Kelly’s chest.

“We can trade…snowmobile for antibiotics.”

“Five…four…”

“Rifle…ammo?” Kelly
asked desperately hoping they would make a trade.
  She wasn’t going to leave, if they shot her
down then so be it.

“Three…two…”

She saw both men drop their fingers down to their
triggers. They were going to do it.
  These barbarians were going to gun down a
woman and child in cold blood. “Hannah
said you would help…said you had a doctor.”  
She spit out frantically.

Mr. Countdown stopped.  
Both men stood there, unmoving, for several seconds.
  “How do you know Hannah?”

Kelly’s heart thundered with hope.
  The words spilled out of her in a
jumble. “Cabin…she came to our cabin…Tom
and I’s. She left with him in hopes of
finding a cure. Here…they were coming
here first. Did you see Tom?
  He’s my husband.
  We went –“