Zombie Day Care (15 page)

“
The tapes! I need the tapes!”

He checked the DVR recorders, but there wasn’t anything significant on them. No one had been turned, and no one was dead, but Stan. He couldn’t let it all end there when he was so close. He had to see them all come to an end. He couldn’t leave them around to steal his glory. He had the serum and the notes. He had them all trapped. One by one he pressed the keys and watched his brother in the corridor.

“
Let’s see how this treats you Henry? It’s dinner time Louie.”

CHAPTER 29

Helplessness crushed his will like a loadstone. Henry heard his girl scream and he could only imagine the worst. They were all doomed, trapped inside with a monster boy. He hurt his other shoulder trying knock the door aside. He struck it with the butt of his shotgun, denting the shining surface a dozen times.

“
Tori! Tori! Tori!” he yelled, his voice full of agony.

He was hoarse, throat dry and spirit broken. Jimmy had done it, he had no doubt. He had two options, wait for a miracle or head for the office. He went inside the elevator and began to pop the hatch in the ceiling.

He could hear the thunder and the beating rain above his ears. A rung of steps led to the roof where another pair of elevator doors was closed. He had an idea; he could get outside and try to get help. There was a problem, what if he couldn’t get the door opened? Jimmy would have secured it just the same as the rest. He hopped back down inside the elevator, landing hard on his ankle and rolling to the floor.

“
Ow!”

It hurt, but he got up despite the agony. He’d had plenty of ankle sprains before. He tried walking if off.
Circulate the blood. Don’t get stiff.
What about Stanley, Tori and the rest? Why did he even come back?

He headed toward the security door and pressed his wet ear on the cold metal. He didn’t hear a thing. He took out his security card.

“
Why not?”

In a limp motion he pressed it over the pad. The door slid back open. He stood gawking, as a wave of cold air mixed in with his sweaty zombie proof suit. He looked all around, head turning in all directions. He knew something was out there. He grabbed the shotgun, which was propped up along the wall, and stepped outside. Nothing, not a sound could be heard, except the humorous sounds of the TV and symphony music.

He scanned his card allowing the door to close back, but he wedged the shotgun lengthwise on the sweep. Two feet remained cracked in the doorway. He walked into the room, eyes darting and every step more painful than the one before.

“
Henry! Henry!” someone was yelling from above, “He’s over there—in the ladder shoot. He’s in the ladder shoot!”

He could see Rudy’s frantic hands motioning across the catwalks. A meaty figure was scrunched inside the metal ladder tube. He saw its head turn, freezing his blood. The boys nostrils flared, in an urgent move it began climbing down the ladder and falling onto the floor.

It can climb!
Panic raced though Henry’s body.

No one knew what to do, as if all their thoughts became stuck in a snow bank. Someone’s mind thawed in time as Louie began coming his way.

“
Get up a ladder chute!” It was Weege’s shrill voice shouting.

There were several ladder chutes along the walls; he bolted for the closest one. Rudy was running over the top trying to guess where he was going. The boy was coming his way in a stiff trot, elbows locked, and mouth clutching. It sent a jolt of adrenaline through his body. He was faster, running at full speed, oblivious to his swollen ankle, and trying to distance himself further from the boy. He leapt over a set of massive toy blocks that the boy crashed through.
It’s fast! Shit! It doesn’t look fast!

Running every direction he could, he created little comfort space. He needed more time to get in the tube. He was exhausted and in a heavy sweat soaked suit. It occurred to him too late that the suit was slowing him down.
Crap!
He circled around the edges of the room, but every time he got too far away the boy would cut across the middle. His lungs were burning and he was slowing down. He had to go for it. He made another half lap, dashed below one of the tubes and began climbing up. He made it up the first few rungs when his gloved hands slipped, he began to fall, but his foot caught him on the rung. Pain lanced through his ankle. Looking down he saw Louie’s clutching mouth and green eyes peering hungrily up his way. Rudy and Weege were screaming for him to move.

Fighting his way up the rungs, he hit the top and pounded away at the locked hatch.

“
Open up! Open up! I’m trapped in here!”

He never felt fear like this as Louie fumbled on the rungs below, lips and jaws smacking, eager to have a bite of him. Henry wasn’t sure the suit would stop him from being torn to pieces if Louie got him. A snap of a latch resounded from above, and the hatch was pulled open with Rudy looking at him eye to eye.

“
It’s about—
urk
!”

Something powerful was pulling Henry down. His arm got caught in the rungs, pinching him underneath his armpit. Rudy was trying to pull him up, his bearded face filled with red cheeks and wrought with panic. He could feel the boys hands crushing his ankle in a mighty grip, something clamped down on his toe like a bear trap. He screamed in agony, drawing a high pitched squeal from his friend that sounded like a frightened pig. The child’s grip and jaws released his toe as Louie fell hard onto the matted floor. He didn’t look down; he was out of the chute and on the catwalk. Rudy slammed down the door and latched it shut.

He mustered quick breaths as he struggled to pull off his suit.

“
Get it off me! I’ve got to see!”

Rudy stood there, beet-faced, with snot running down his nose. Henry thought he was choking. Rudy pulled out an inhaler and sucked in some white misty air. Now Weege was at his side, helping him jerk off the suit. Henry pulled off his socks and checked his foot and ankles. There were red impressions on his ankle and his toes were bruised, maybe broken, but the skin didn’t break.

“
Whew!” he said, while looking around, “Where’s Tori!?”

CHAPTER 30

As he sat there he couldn’t believe they were all okay, after all of his planning. He guzzled another beer as he watched all of them escape a certain death. Jimmy knew he had them trapped, but for how long. He needed to leave. He prepared another line of cocaine. Another idea was certain to blossom, they always did. The sight of his brother’s face made him angrier by the second. The rest of the crew, trapped inside, were just as bad, plotting, scheming and wanting to take away his glory.

His words were almost incoherent.

“
You shall not have it.”

He could see them trying to figure a way out, pointing and thinking out loud. The little man from India’s face was a knot of concern, while the fat guy looked like his brain was starving for ice cream. Henry pranced back and forth, the calm inside the storm, pulling them all together to plot against him. He would not let that happen.

He took a heavy sniff.

“
The glory shall be mine.”

He rubbed his reddened nose, noticing a trickle of blood coming down over his lips. “Hate it when that happens.”

Taking a handkerchief from his jeans pocket he placed it over his nose and leaned his head back. He needed a plan, a decision … he just had to relax. His mind was a jumbled mess, finding a direction and making a choice was hard to come by.

He imagined them escaping the facility, being on the news and taking his spotlight. He would be locked up, behind bars, and his brother would be branded the next man that saved the world. All he had to do was leave, take the serum and footage to his conspirators, and get paid a handsome fee. That wasn’t enough, he wanted more, but that was never discussed, it was only what he wanted. He wanted to be the next Nate McDaniel, and that wouldn’t happen while his brother lived. Now his strength was returning, and the sweat of alcohol began to seep from his pores like fumes of clean ideas. Opening his bloodshot eyes he watched the men on the screens. His now brilliant mind hatched another devious plan. Another fit of theatric laughter passed as he prepared for his next move. His voice was dry as ice as he said, “Yee-hah.”

CHAPTER 31

“
Sentient,” he whispered.

Henry brushed his bangs from his glasses as he watched the footage on the monitor. Weege was fidgeting at his side, while Rudy kept pressing his index finger on the screen.

“
Stop touching my screen, dammit,” Weege said, smacking the hairy knuckled hand. “I hate it when you do that. Why do you do that?”

Rudy became defensive. “Do you think that really matters
now
—whether or not I touch your screen—when a zombie is about to come up here and eat your fragment of a brain.”

“
Okay, cut it out you two,” he said, his stern voice rising, “we need to plan, not bicker.”

They weren’t getting anywhere fast. He’d seen Tori strapped and stabilized to a table and it slammed into his soul. She didn’t deserve this, no one did. He felt responsible for it all, he always did. Her expression was peaceful as he held her soft face in his hands, apologizing over and over again. He sobbed inside the madness, trying to remember why he had ever gotten into all of this. His girlfriend has one arm, and he supposed if Stanley could still love his undead mother, he could love a one armed woman as well. His dad and brother were another concern. He had no idea where they might be. There was no doubt that Jimmy had caused all of this. It had to be.

He looked at the text from Nate McDaniel. CPWWSZH.
WHS … World Humanitarian Society?
Z … Zombie?
He remembered a link texted from Nate moons ago. He scrolled back and opened it up. His head broke out in a cold sweat.

“
Can’t be,” he murmured.

He had skimmed the article, he always did that much, but neglected to give it any serious thought. Now, with the death of his friend, things seemed to be more realistic. Inside the article were the other three letters, WPC.
It can’t be can it? WPC … World Population Control.
It would explain why China was one of the first nations to fall. Nate had prevented it.
Wow!
Henry chose to keep that information to himself and move on.

The cracking thunder, driving rain and howling winds did little to cover the sound of Louie hammering at the hatch and moaning, “Numma! Numma! Numma!”

The boy’s voice and pounding fists became stronger by the minute. At any moment he was certain the boy would burst through and life would end.

The facility was a poor design, considering the needs of the staff. They had to rely on cell phones and an old intercom phone system to communicate between the various offices. A fifty-year-old government building had modern technology jammed inside and nothing ever worked the way it should have. Getting people inside to fix it was nearly impossible, and for the most part, out of the question. They were supposed to add an elevator and a fire escape leading to the top observation room, but the funding ran out first. They were supposed to do lots of things, but it never happened. The facility wasn’t designed to be a secret lab that housed zombies. They were forced to make do with what they had.

The phone rang on the other end as he had been trying to contact Stanley in the lab. His stepdad had almost never answered, saying he never heard it, his mind was always busy. Deep inside Henry felt something wrong happened below, but he held out hope.

The failure of cell phone or landline service squashed the chance of anyone coming, and possible flooding at the bottom of the hills would make things worse if anyone came. No, they were forgotten for the time being, meant only to fend for themselves. He looked up at the windows, high like an old church, shaking like a tuning fork. On a good day the windows bathed the room in welcome sunlight, but now they were dark and filled with flashes of light, some too close for comfort.
Those better hold.

“
Guys, we have to get out of here, I have a plan,” Henry said as they gathered around.

“
Well, what is it? “Rudy asked.

“
We need to trap Louie, like the others. We’ll use the dog snares?”

The little man objected, hands flailing in the air saying, “We need to kill him and get the hell out of here. I’m not going to use a doggy thing, if that is what you are talking about?”

Rudy rolled his eyes.

“
See those poles over there,” he pointed at the wall on the other side, “they are what dog catchers use for rabid dogs. They have a noose you flip over the neck to snare them. It’s real easy.” Rudy was shaking his bushy head saying, “Henry, he’s awful strong. I don’t think we can hold him. He about busted that hatch off the hinges. We should try to kill him, it’s the only way.”

He wanted that more than anything, the truth be told, but deep inside he felt killing a child, even though it was dead, was wrong. Now that Louie had just shown them a radical transformation in behavior, another death of the zombie child was even harder to justify. If sound scared Louie, could he feel pain too? The scientist inside him had to find out. He had to know. Was Stanley that close to curing the zombies, or was this something else?