Chase, along with Lucas and Dax, loaded their meager supplies from the van into the Humvee. Chase asked him where exactly they are going, just to make conversation, but Frank avoided the question by telling him he had a friend to pick up in the city first.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” Chase said. “Daniel had told us to stay out of the cities at all costs.”
“We don’t have a choice. The guy is stranded and needs our help,” Frank said shortly.
“I don’t know,” Dax added. “Sounds really dangerous even in this ride.”
Frank got in Dax’s face in seconds. “I stuck my neck out for you!”
Frank walked Dax up against the Humvee as he added, “What makes you think that you are better than him?”
Chase moved in as he saw Frank’s hands ball into fists.
“Hold up,” Chase said. “He was just voicing a concern out loud. We are all grateful that you came for us.”
“Sorry,” Frank spat and moved away.
After exchanging a few looks and shrugs, the gang all followed Frank’s cue and climbed into the vehicle. Chase helped Jayda in, who seemed too tired today to even complain about his help. He couldn’t help but to watch her out of the corner of his eye as they drove in silence. He just hoped that he hadn’t put them all in harm’s way. Of course, military guys were known to have short fuses at times. And a zombie apocalypse was a trying time for anyone.
He tried to remember all they’d seen, and he was sure this guy had seemed worse. He thought about Daniel again. He wished he knew what had happened to him. Frank never had said. But if he were a praying man, he’d have asked that he wasn’t allowed to turn. He knew his friend wouldn’t have wanted that.
By the time they got to the city, it seemed a virtual ghost town. Most places did these days, as any survivors stayed holed up. From time to time they’d see a zombie wake at the sound of their vehicle, but none of them had been fast enough to keep up with them. Frank obviously knew exactly where he was headed. He took several turns a bit fast for his comfort. He grimaced when he saw how green around the gills his driving was making poor Jayda.
Just as he was about to say something, Frank pulled up and stopped in front of an old mom and pop type store. He wondered what had happened to the mom and pop owners as he looked at the place. It seemed to have caught fire. Melted glass hung from the top of the big front window, and smoke stains went up the front to the apartments above.
“He’s up there. He said the smoke has kept the zombies away. At the time of the fire, firemen had still answered the call. They saved his apartment, and he’s been living there ever since just waiting for me to be able to get to him. It’s been one thing after another though for months now,” Frank went on as he got out of the van.
“Chase,” Frank continued, “you come up with me. The rest of you stay here and guard the vehicle.”
Chase gave them a brief look and obeyed. He hoped the rest of them would do the same thing. Frank lowered a fire escape on the side of the building, and they climbed up the stairs.
“He said the stairs took a good hit from the fire,” Frank shared as they climbed.
At the window, they were greeted by the barrel of a gun. After a shouted exchange, the man let Chase and Frank in.
“You thought zombies could make it up the fire escape?” Frank asked as he climbed in.
“I don’t trust the dead or the living these days,” the guy said.
“Got ya,” Frank agreed. “Chase, check on the group, will ya?”
“Sure,” he said, then moved back to the window.
He could hear Frank and the guy talking as they moved into another room. He took his time getting back to the window as he eavesdropped. He got increasingly uncomfortable as he heard Frank tell this guy that him and his people were perfect for the compound. The word sparked images of a serial killer and poisoned Kool-Aid.
By the time he got to the window, he saw his people under attack by a small band of zombies.
Chase moved as fast as he could to aid them as they shot the zombies getting too close for comfort. From his vantage point, it seemed that one after the other kept coming at them. Looking down the street, he could see a horde forming as they trickled from between the buildings. His stomach dropped as he ran toward them. He knew they wouldn’t have enough ammo to take them all.
He saw Dax run the opposite way and open a car door. He yelled his way, but Dax didn’t turn before he climbed in. Suddenly, the car roared to life. Chase could only watch as Dax drove forward, going just past the zombies but away from the group. When he stopped in an alley, he started to honk the horn.
The zombies turned toward the sound as Dax continued to lay on the horn. As the few left before them walked away, Frank and his guy came out. They all regrouped at the Humvee. Once inside, he couldn’t even see Dax’s car anymore, though he could still hear it. There was a thick wall of zombies between them and him.
Frank drove toward the herd, but soon couldn’t go any further. He smashed several bodies against the brick building on the side of the alley, but they just kept coming, doing their best to try and climb the vehicle.
Frank backed up. Zombies fell only to get back up again. The horde seemed to walk in circles between the sound of the Humvee and Dax’s horn.
“We can’t save him,” Frank said, looking at Chase.
“Bullshit,” he yelled as he opened his door.
Gun out, he fired off a few rounds. Frank grabbed him. The two struggled a second before he felt a zombie swipe at his back. Instinct had him jumping back in the vehicle. Luckily, instinct had Frank fire at the closest zombie and then slam the door.
Chase leaned against it even as several more zombies banged their bodies against it. In a daze, he watched their hands hit the window. Flesh seemed to slide off their bones with each hit. Catching his breath, he swallowed over the nausea threatening to empty his already empty stomach.
Frank tried again to slam more of them into the building. When a small window opened between them and Dax, he saw the man smile and then salute him. Next thing he knew, Dax blew his own head off. Before this could register, Frank turned around the Humvee and fled.
Although he’d planned to find out more about the guy they’d picked up on the ride to the military base that Frank had called a compound, after losing Dax, he’d said nothing. The image of losing him played over and over in his mind. It could only be silenced by memories of all Dax had done for the group or by Jayda moving the hand that she’d placed over his.
When they reached the compound, he couldn’t tell if the mood that ran through the van was relief or excitement. Probably a mixture of both drowned out by their losses. Each woman had cried at some point on the trip there. He was sure that Dax’s tragic death had only dredged up their own losses along the way.
As they pulled up to the gate, an armed guard came up to the window. Frank flashed him a badge of some sort.
“We’ll take the weapons,” the guard said, his own gun poised at the ready.
“What does he mean, take the weapons?” Chase asked Frank.
“It’s just protocol,” Frank answered as he handed over his own weapon.
“I don’t want to do that,” Chase said back.
“You have no choice. It’s fine. This isn’t the outside world. We’ll be safe inside these walls. You have no choice. Either walk away armed or go in without,” Frank shrugged as he finished.
The doors all opened and guards stood awaiting their decision. At the moment, it seemed they may just be shot on the spot if they refused. So, after that step was completed, the vehicle was then searched as were each of them. They got to get back into the Humvee and drove in.
After exiting, they were handed over by Frank and his friend to a military man. Chase and the group followed him. The tension built in his already tight shoulders as they moved further and further into the building. He would have been far worse off had he known that the man leading them through the building had been the same one that had killed Lucas’ brother, Dr. Benton.
Chase finally broke the tension by asking the guy where they were going.
“To the living quarters to get you checked in,” he answered frankly.
They continued to follow him until they reached a large metal door. Using his thumb as verification, the military guy made the door open. It closed after them, making Chase jump.
“Food or testing?” the woman who sat at a desk just inside the door asked.
“You decide,” the guard gave a tense, brief chuckle. “I could care less.”
“Wait, what does that mean?” Chase asked the man even as he walked away from them as if he hadn’t heard him.
He looked to the woman who seemed to take some kind of pity on him.
“I’m sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you were brought here to be either used as food or testing. Please remove all of your clothes,” she demanded in a flat tone.
Chase tried to refuse. He even started to scream at the woman. Soon though, he found himself struggling with a guard who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. He threw a punch, but before he even felt it land, an arm snaked around his neck. The next thing he knew, everything fell to black.
Chase opened his eyes to surgery lighting and cool white walls. A man in a uniform had shaken him awake and was propping him up into a line of people. Each looked as dazed and confused as he did. He stepped out of line to find out what was ahead of them all.
Several people ahead of him, a guard grabbed the man in front and led him to a chair a ways up in the room. After he was sat down, the guy Frank had gone to pick up injected the poor guy in the neck. He tried to fight, but the uniformed men held him down.
The sight seemed too unreal to believe. He had to wonder if he was still asleep as the naked guy practically hulked out on them. They did their best to hold him down, careless of his nakedness. The more they seemed to restrain the guy, the more he fought them. Mindless of time passing as he attempted to figure out just what was going on around him, he looked down the line at the mindless people.
He wondered if they were drugged as they seemed to patiently await the same fate. He wondered if he was drugged as well, as he didn’t fight against it all. He just stood trying to pull two thoughts together. Unaware of time passing, he turned back to the events at the front of the room. As if he’d just woken up from a long nap, hung over but still stoned, he watched the guy become really aggressive.
He slipped from the guards and ran at them. One guard kicked him back, and the other blew his brains out. A tiny shock went through Chase as the gun had rung out in the room. Yet, he just stood there.
Soon, someone had him by the shoulders, moving him forward.
“You like to watch, huh? Guess your next then before you become too aware,” the guy said.
The fact that his voice has been mean and nasty registered in his mind. The cold chair they shoved his naked ass into gave his brain a jolt. He struggled with the hands and arms restraining him as he watched Frank’s friend, now in a lab coat, fill a syringe. As the large needled moved toward him, he mumbled, “Wait.”
“Ah, I know you,” the scientist guy said as he pulled the needle back a bit. “Frank got you just before he picked me up. You seemed like a strong guy. Smart too. Frank was right. It will be interesting to see the effect this experimental drug has on your cells.”
The word cells ricocheted through his thoughts.
“Cell regeneration,” he stumbled. “We stopped the decomposition of the cells in a zombie.”
The words sounded almost foreign to him, but tumbled out of his mouth as if he’d memorized them at some point.
“Really?” the scientist laughed. “Good thing you already related that information to Frank so his team of scientists could use it. That is just in case you are the next to die here.”
He leaned in toward Chase again, and he fought them with all he could muster. Just as the needle pricked his skin, a door opened, and a voice shouted for them to stop.
“Seems I’m just in time, and that this is your lucky day there Chase,” Frank smiled at him as he walked his way. “Seems someone important was more impressed that I thought by your research and wants to speak with you.”
Chase tried to focus in on all the words.
“You didn’t give him anything, did you?” Frank asked the guy in the white coat.
“No. I’d just pricked his skin with the needle when you barged in. A second later and he could have been toast,” the guy shook his head as he spoke.
“Release him,” Frank said to the uniformed men restraining Chase.
Chase was taken for clothing and coffee before being brought by Frank and several guards to an office. As his mind cleared, the events of the last however many hours still seemed too odd to comprehend. Once another guy in a lab coat came in, he seated himself behind the big metal desk. Several more followed and stood in a circle behind the guy.
“So, this is the guy huh?” the lab coat said to Frank.
“Yes, this is Chase Douglas,” Frank answered.
“Hi Chase, my name is Ben,” he offered without offering his hand. “From what I’ve heard, I think you may have some information that could be very useful to us. Mind going through the story again?”
“Yes, actually, I do,” Chase dared boldly. “I won’t say a word unless you save each person I came in with.”
“Sorry, we can’t do that,” Frank interjected.
“Wait,” Ben stopped him. “Maybe we could strike a deal. I’m in an especially good mood today. How about we let you pick one of them to save. Then you tell us. Or we can just kill you all. I have no problem either way. Luckily your assistant already gave us enough to go on. I would like to hear it again to be able to ask questions if I want, but I’m sure this little meeting isn’t really necessary.”
Chase’s thoughts went to Jayda. He’d decided long ago to take any risk to save her life. He didn’t know if she even remained alive at this point, but they’d already called his bluff and he had to try. So he swallowed the words he wanted to yell at them about going and fucking themselves.
Instead he muttered, “Save Jayda. She’s pregnant.”
Ben looked to Frank and said, “Find the woman and bring her here quickly. We will wait. Also, bring his assistant. Might as well hear the story from both of them.”
Frank nodded and walked off with his uniformed entourage. The room grew quiet. The silence was almost deafening as the guy at the desk, Ben, opened a file and read. On occasion he scribbled something with a pen. The other lab coats behind him stood at attention. Obviously military like he’d been. They knew how to take orders and how to keep quiet until orders were given to them.
After an endless stretch of time he was sure was only a few minutes by the amount of times Ben had turned his pages, Frank walked in with Jayda and Lucas. He was thrilled to see them clothed and looking better than he’d expected. In fact, if possible, they both seemed to glow, maybe to have even gained a touch of weight. How long had he been out? It only could have been a few hours.
The men took no time in getting right down to it. Chase and Lucas talked on, answered questions when asked, and even debated a few scientific points of speculation as they went. Food had been brought in at one point, and Chase ate and talked with his mouth full without care to manners.
Lucas and Jayda had just picked, so he figured they’d already been fed well. He wondered if they’d gone to the food group. He was still unclear what that meant, but obviously they’d eaten.
“Well, I have to say that I’m impressed with your findings given the resources you had at your disposal,” Ben finally said as he wiped his mouth. “I would like to work with you both, to add you to my team.”
“Wait, you said just Chase and one other,” Frank interjected. “We only had clearance for one of them to begin with.”
“Take them all back to the food area. Let them eat some more, and I will go talk to those who make the executive decisions around here,” Ben said with a forced calm to his voice.
This raised an eyebrow on Chase, but he followed the guards willingly. He hoped he could have both Jayda and Lucas. He felt bad for Sherri, but he’d be grateful for what he could get at this point. Just a bit ago he thought himself dead, even though it hadn’t seemed to matter to him.
When they got to what they’d called the food area, he observed what looked like a bunch of men and women in hospital scrubs like Lucas and Jayda wore sitting in a cafeteria. Each of them ate colorless food as if a chore. Uniformed men seemed to be forcing them to do so. To his relief, he saw Lucas find Sherri. For the moment, they were all alive.
A few feet from him, a guard shouted at a woman. As she shook her head and cried, he ripped her from her seat. Food fell from her hands. She sobbed openly as the guard started to beat her. Chase, without thought, moved and decked the guard.
Restrained in seconds, Frank came to his rescue.
“These are Ben’s consultants,” Frank shouted. “You will leave this man, this man, and this woman alone,” he demanded as he’d pointed at Chase, Lucas, and Jayda.
The guard stared daggers at Chase, but he backed away.
“What is this place,” Chase asked Lucas once they’d been led to a table and Frank had left them to talk to another guard.
“It’s the food area. We were all scrubbed clean, given these hospital like gowns, and forced to eat. Even if you throw up, you are forced to start all over again. From what I gather, though I can’t believe it, I think we are being fattened up to become food for someone else.”
“What?” Chase said.
“It’s been rumored,” Jayda said.
“That can’t be. Who eats humans?” Chase asked in a whisper.
“Zombies? Survivors? I don’t know. Where were you taken?” Jayda asked.
“To testing. We weren’t given showers or clothes. I think we were just drugged. They gave this one guy a shot and he freaked out so they shot him. At the time, I barely reacted to it.”
“Nice place,” Jayda sighed.
“I’m sorry,” Chase apologized. “I’m doing all I can to still save you.”
“Don’t apologize. We didn’t have any great options. We had no place to go, and you did what you thought best. I don’t blame you, Chase.”
“But once again my best has put you in harm’s way,” he choked out the words.
“Stop. Just eat.”
And old man approached them then. Dressed as Jayda and Lucas, he wiggled his way in between them.
“Pardon me, doc, but I heard what that guy said about you. You must be from the new group, rumored to have developed a cure,” the old guy whispered.
“How do you know this?” Chase asked.
“The guards talk among themselves as if we don’t have ears. Not surprising as they treat us like were are not humans either,” he continued.
“So, what can I do for you?” Chase asked.
“See that woman over there, the beautiful one with the long hair?”
“Yeah, I see her. Why?”
Chase looked at the woman. For as clean as the rest of them were, she seemed to be dirty. Maybe it was just food on her face and hands. Either way, even from the distance, she was beautiful.
“Is that scratches on her face?” Chase asked.
“Yes, that’s why I point her out. She’s not only been mulled by a zombie, but she’s been bitten as well. She’s healing up now, but they brought her in here because she didn’t get sick or turn. She’s immune.”