Zombie Fever: Evolution (17 page)
When Jayden was almost finished, he entered an uncleared room and found a zombie nurse trapped in a bathroom. It had almost freed itself: the IV stand blocking the door had slipped, giving it enough room to poke its head and arms out of the door. When it saw Jayden, it moaned with a guttural hunger.
He took two pillow cases from the bed, doubled bagged them over its head, securing them with a length of surgical tape from a medicine chest on one wall. Then he pulled the IV stand away from the door and tied its hands behind its back with strips of bed sheet.
If Bertrand wants a sample, he’ll get a sample,
he thought as he dragged it into the hallway.
He had packed more than a thousand rounds with him for the mission and by the time he was finished with his rampage, he was using the empty rifle as a club, swinging it into the heads of those unlucky enough not to have received the bliss of a quick death, via a bullet in the brain.
Meanwhile, Abigail bandaged Tomas’ shoulder as best she could while they waited for Jayden to return.
Eventually, he kicked open their door. “Floor is clear! Let’s get a move on!”
Abigail helped Tomas to his feet and led them down the hallway to Jamie’s room, feeling the cold steel of the scissors she’d found hidden in her waistband.
If he hurt Jamie, I’m going to jam these scissors into his groin
.
“Here,” she pointed to the second to the last room in the hall. The door had been busted open courtesy of their psychotic mercenary captor.
Abigail peered inside and was both relieved and concerned to see the room was empty.
At least Jayden hasn’t killed her, but where’s Jamie?
“Look,” Tomas croaked through pale-blue lips.
On the wall opposite the bed, there was a message written in what Abigail hoped was red lipstick,
Abi, save the world.
Her throat hitched.
Jamie was gone.
I may never see Jamie again.
While Abigail grieved, Jayden called the ship. “Alpha Charlie Echo, please respond, over. Repeat. Alpha Charlie Echo, requesting immediate evac, over,” Jayden said into his com behind her. “Alpha Charlie Echo, do you copy?”
“Control here. Evacuation denied, over. Mission canceled, over.” There was a pause then the operator said, “Sorry, Jayden. You’re on your own.”
Jayden couldn’t believe what he was hearing, “Control, please repeat, over. Control, clarify, over.”
But all he heard was static.
He stormed to the window and looked out into the night. Fires were eating huge swaths of shopping centers along Orchard Road and thousands glistening bodies undulated below in the dancing orange light in the street.
“What now?” Abigail asked. She had taken out the scissors and had them behind her back. She moved closer to Jayden within striking range of the back of his neck.
“Sergeant Jayden, do you copy?” It was his poker buddy, Specialist Crawford.
“Crawford. What the hell is going on?”
“WHO has accelerated the timetable for the strike on Singapore. They’re nuking the island in less than an hour, Jayden. They don’t see any other way to contain the outbreak. There’s a submarine off the coast preparing to launch five neutron tipped missiles. The entire country is going to be wiped clean of virus. Anyone still on the island has already been assessed as collateral damage. You’ve been written off as one of those casualties, Jayden, over.”
Abigail could hear the squawking conversation through the com-link. She dropped the scissors and they went clinking to the floor.
They’re going to decimate my country.
She walked over and sat beside Tomas who had taken a seat on Jamie’s former hospital bed when they had entered the room.
Now there were two people in shock.
Jayden stood thinking, then said, “Crawford, have you rigged the hover drone I requested for Vines, over?”
“Sarge … you’re a genius.” There was a pause, “Drone launched and homing in on your location, over. ETA, two minutes. Get to the rooftop and get ready for evac, over.”
Crawford was taking a huge risk launching a drone without proper clearance.
Jayden ushered his now useless captives out into the hallway and into the elevator, dragging along the zombie nurse behind him.
The top floor was empty.
Like most buildings on Orchard, the hospital had a rooftop garden and café.
Jayden pushed Abigail and Tomas out onto the green space into the night air. The drone was already landing in the center of the pitch.
Jayden cranked open the first of the ordinance tubes and peered inside.
It will be as tight as a coffin.
“Okay, you two - climb inside and make yourselves comfortable.”
Abigail helped Tomas worm his way in, and then she squeezed in after him.
Jayden closed and secured the hatch, went to the other side of the small craft, lifted the infected nurse the cramped space and squeezed into the ordinance tube with it. He silently hoped that they weren’t too heavy for the drone’s thrusters. He didn’t like the idea of careening into a skyscraper or plunging into the ocean. He closed the hatch and said, “Crawford, ready for launch, over.”
The flight was bumpy but uneventful and the automated craft managed a safe landing on VIRaL’s deck.
When the craft completed its final shutdown, Jayden’s hatch popped open and he was jerked out by a half dozen of his own men and thrown to the ground, as were Abigail and Tomas who landed on the ship’s deck beside him.
Once the men realized that the nurse was an actual zombie, they shot it with a tranquilizer dart and temporarily sealed it inside a clear body bag, planning to leave it inside the plastic until they received orders on how to proceed with it.
“So, you think you can circumvent my direct orders, do you, Sergeant?” Supervisor Bertrand inquired, standing behind his soldiers. He turned to one of Jayden’s men and said, “Get them to quarantine on C deck. They may all be infected. And take that specimen to Dr. Taverna’s lab. He’s going to be so pleased.”
*****
Abigail felt it was her duty to catch Tomas up on recent events.
“It’s not so bad,” Abigail reassured him. He was lying on his bed in the adjoining cell in the ship’s brig. The through-and-through wound in his arm had been more severe than they had realized, and the ship’s surgeon had to operate to repair a nicked artery. He had been unconscious since the surgery the day earlier.
“The crew isn’t very talkative, but the guy that brings us our meals says the bombing stopped the Singapore outbreak.” Her voice was hollow. The emotional turmoil of knowing that her homeland had been obliterated was suppressed deep inside. “And we’re on our way to Vitura’s San Diego campus as we speak. We’ll arrive in eighteen days. They won’t say what they’re going to do with us. But I doubt they’re planning to kill us. Otherwise, why keep us locked up, and why fix your shoulder?”
“Abi, I’m sorry about everything,” Tomas was weak and that was all he could muster.
Abigail hesitated, letting in the pain of what she had endured, then forcing it back, she continued, “Jamie was right, you know. I have the cure within me that can stop zombie fever once and for all. You worry about getting well and I’ll figure out how to escape once we hit land. I’m not worried, Tomas … so long as you’re with me.”
The End.
Works by B.M. Hodges
Horror
Tomas decides to spend the summer with his father, who works as a security guard for
Vitura Pharmaceuticals. Soon after his arrival, his father disappears without a trace.
Tomas searches for his father, only to discover Vitura is more than it seems to be.
A young woman is cast in a reality TV show. Zombies are running rampant.
The contestants race cars deep in the Zombie Quarantine Zone.
Who will become infected with zombie fever?
Who gets eaten by the zombie horde?
And most importantly, who wins the million dollar prize?
Zombie Fever 3: Evolution
In less than twenty-four hours, the Zombie Fever virus has mutated and is out of control.
Vitura has sent Jayden to hunt down Tomas and Abigail and bring them back, dead or alive.
Tomas must find Abigail and get to her to safety.
Only they can stop the virus from becoming a global killer.
Science Fiction
The Martian Escape Plan
(Coming in January 2013)
After leading a failed effort to colonize the Planet Earth,
Darius Janner thinks he’s finally found a way home.
Dystopian Rodent Literature
An innocent rodent subjected to fickle fate.
Sent to a house filled with the worst of humanity.
Escaping and finding solace in a forbidden love.
Yet peace will not be had. Onward he travels...
Short Stories
Germaphobia Singapura (An Annoying Short Story)
Roy had always dreamed of living abroad in the tropics, somewhere remote and exotic.
So accepting the offer to teach in Singapore was a no-brainer.
But poor Roy failed to anticipate how living in one of the world's most
densely populated cities would arouse his intuitive preoccupation with cleanliness.
Naively Irrelevant (A Bitterly Short Story)
An ode to the anguish and bitterness of infidelity.
Thank you so much for purchasing this digital copy of
Zombie Fever 3: Evolution
. I hope you've loved reading it as much as I loved writing it.
If you enjoyed this book, please consider leaving me a review.
About the Author
B.M. Hodges
studied in the United States and Singapore where he was awarded a Master's Degree in Literary Studies. He began his writing career in 2008 with the dystopian rodent literary novel
Buddy the Rat
. In 2012, he published
Zombie Fever 1: Origins
and
Zombie Fever 2: Outbreak
and, most recently,
Zombie Fever 3: Evolution
. He is currently living in South East Asia and working on the fourth installment of the
Zombie Fever
series that will be released in 2013.
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