Bitten (25 page)

Rachael waited with the teenagers in the observation lounge. Suddenly, Lindsey shrieked. Rachael spun around to see
what had frightened her and suddenly spotted Jennifer Hurley standing on the other side of the entrance, naked and bloody. She stared at them through the glass with wraith-like eyes and a chilling gaze. Her blonde hair was stained the color of milk chocolate and hung in clumpy dreads, caked together with her victims’ blood. Knowing that Jenifer had lost her mind, it was practically impossible to tell what she might be thinking.

Suddenly Jennifer’s eyes locked onto Josh. Rachael quickly pushed Josh behind her to keep him out of
Hurley’s line of sight.

“Don’t make
any direct eye-contact,” whispered Rachael out of the corner of her mouth. They all held their breath and waited for something to happen. But then Hurley just calmly turned and walked away.

“What the hell is wrong with her?” asked Lindsey, holding onto Rach
ael’s arm.

“I think she’s had a psychotic break,” Rachael said.

“You think?” Josh answered back.

“And I thought those things up there were scary,” Lindsey said pointing upward. “Those things will tear off your face, but she’ll mess you up seven different ways till sundown.”

All of a sudden Alyssa popped into view. After the intense standoff with Hurley, her sudden appearance caused everyone to scream with fright. Alyssa had almost walked past them but their screams alerted her to their presence and she turned to see Rachael standing in the lounge with two frightened teenagers.

As she entered into the room, t
he terrified looks on their faces confirmed Alyssa’s worst suspicions. Her voice growing solemn, she stated what everyone was thinking, “Something is terribly wrong with this place.”

“Tell us about it,” Lindsey said pointing to the mark etched into her forehead.

“That’s…” Alyssa’s voice trailed off.

“What is it?” Rachael asked. “Do you recognize it? Have you seen more
like these?”

Alyssa shot her a petrified look. “That’s the same symbol that was painted on your bedroom wall with blood.”

“Levi?”

Alyssa bit her lip, but didn't need to speak for Rachael to guess.
“You should have seen him,” Alyssa said, her voice choking up. “It was like
Silence of the Lambs
in there.”

“The best thing we can do right now is stick together,” Rachael said, trying to boost the group’s morale.

“I opt that we head back up to the cars where those marines are,” Josh said. “At least then we’ll have a bit of protection. Also, maybe one of them will know what’s going on.”

Just
then the full contingent of marine’s marched past the windows. They all stared silently as the unit passed by.

“Never mind,” said Josh with a disappointed tone. “It looks like we’re on our own.”

“Maybe that’s for the better,” Rachael said, ushering everyone toward the doors.

“How is that better?” asked Lindsey.

“While everyone else is distracted down here, we’ll make our way to the cars.”

They nodded and followed her out the doors. Dashing up the hallway, the ragtag group made their way through the labyrinth of corridors and headed for the surface.

Alyssa suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. “Hey, hold up a sec.”

They paused and turned
around to see what she needed.

“What is it?” Lindsey asked.

“I have to get something from my room first.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

“It’s my diary. It’s important. It chronicles everything that’s happened so far.”

Rachael was about to protest, but before she could
say anything Alyssa was already running back down the hall, back toward her room. Rachael looked at the kids with heavy eyes. She weighed leaving them to fend for themselves in order to go after Alyssa.

“Don’t leave us,” Lindsey said, putting her hand on Rachael’s arm.

Rachael looked down at her touch, then back into her eyes and smiled. “I won’t. I promise.”

Suddenly the lights began to flicker uncontrollably. Then they went out for a few moments, then flashed back on.

“What was that?” Josh asked.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” Lindsey said in a scared voice.

Moans broke out from the intersection and everyone’s heads whipped back to see what it was. The entire intersection quickly flooded with zombies, all of them looking right at Rachael and the kids. Leading the pack was a burley tattooed biker zombie—one of the survivors they had arrived with.

“Sonuvabitch!” shouted Josh.

Rachael shoved the kids back and screamed, “Run!”

Alyssa made it to her room and opened the door. She ran inside and began rummaging through her bag. But her diary was missing.

“Looking for this?”

Alyssa slowly raised her head to see Jennifer Hurley’s naked form hovering in the doorway. She was bathed in blood and wore the symbol omega on her chest. She fondled the tip of her wicked blade with her fingers, and tucked under her arm was Alyssa’s diary.

“Excuse me, but I think you have something that belongs to me.”

“It’s a very interesting story,” Jennifer said and she thumbed through some
of the pages. They were already stained with her bloody fingerprints. “It’s funny, you see? I’m in this story. I’m very interested to find out what will happen to me.”

“It’s not a story,” Alyssa informed. “I
t’s my flipping nightmare of a life. Now give me back my diary you psycho-fuck-fruitcake!”

Jennifer tried hard not to laugh, but couldn’t hold back her chortle, “Oh, you poor little thing.
You’re so adorable and you try to use bad words and act all tough.”

The lights briefly flickered again, as if it was a bad omen. Alyssa tried to dash out the door but Hurley
stepped in and blocked her way. Frustrated she yelled, “What do you want from me?!”

“I want you to beg me to stop.”

“Stop you from what?!”

Hurley held out the knife and ran it down Alyssa’s cheek. Alyssa remained fixed, not flinching for an instant. She knew the moment she showed fear, the moment she showed any sign of weakness, Hurley would strike like the pernicious viper she was.

“Screw you!” Alyssa snapped and spat in Jennifer’s face.

Suddenly Jennifer’s face went blank. She looked up at Alyssa like she didn’t recognize her and then turned and slowly walked away.

Watching the monitors, Mitch saw Barnes and Noble ushering people out of the facility at his request. They had lost contact with Linda, the general, and the repair team. Now the containment failure alarm was blaring in the control room and Mitch was thoroughly freaked out. He had sent a contingent of marines to go deal with it, but he hadn’t heard back from them either. The shit had thoroughly hit the fan.

Looking over at the two remaining staff, a man and a woman, Mitch said, “You two better go get on that bus while you still can. I’ll hold down the fort here.”

Hesitating, they looked at him for a moment.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Go on, get!”

Reluctantly, they did as they were told.

Whatever happened next, Mitch was the last man at his post and like the noble captain of a ship, he swore he’d would see The Third Coast sunk before he’d ever let those god forsaken things see the light of day above.

Barnes looked back at the cave entrance in time to see Rachael and a couple of teenagers come running out of the mouth of the base.

“Glad to see you’re safe,” Barnes
hollered.

“You need to get these kids to safety,” Rachael said. She pushed Josh and Lindsey forward and then she turned to head back
into the base.

“Wait,” Barnes said, grabbing her wrist. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“I have to go back and get Alyssa.”

“Like hell you are! I’m not letting you go back in there. It’s suicide. Let the general get her out.”

“The general has been missing since we arrived at this godforsaken place. For all we know he could be dead,” she informed delicately. “So if you don’t mind, I’d like to go save my friend.”

“Damn it,
Ramirez!” Barnes blared in frustration. “I’ve been given direct orders by the operations manager to get everyone out of here, stat! And that’s what I’m going to do.” Without another word he tugged on Rachael’s wrist and tried to force her to come with him. She pulled back and stood her ground.

Calmly, Rachael looked Barnes straight in his eyes, and said, “Staff Sergeant, Let. Go. Of. My.
Goddamn. Arm. But I’m going back in whether you like it or not.”

Noises could be heard coming from the mouth of the entrance. Both of them looked over to see the sloppy gait of the monsters coming out of the base. Burley biker zombie leading the charge. Barnes took out his handgun and handed it to Rachael.

“Then take this. I’ll cover you for as long as I can.”

Rachael nodded in gratitude and turned to head back into the mouth of madness.

GRUMBLING AND SCRAPING THE COLOSSAL doors slowed to a juddering halt and then, with the grinding of gears, they reversed and began to shut again.

“We don’t have much time,”
Barnes shouted above the noise. “We have to go. Now!”

“Wait
!” Josh and Lindsey protested at the same time. Josh continued, “We have to wait for Rachael and her friend to get back. We can’t just leave them. Not after all we’ve been through.”

“You worry about your girl, kid. Let me worry about mine.”

“I can take care of myself,” Lindsey said with a hand on her hips as she gave Jared the old evil-eye.

“I didn’t mean it like … just … I don’t have time for this shit. Just get on the bus would ‘ya?” Barnes complained as he ushered them forward.

Sergeant Ulysses Noble pushed the few remaining survivors onto the bus. Josh and Lindsey held hands and stared out of the back of the bus at the horde rapidly catching up to them.

As the bus doors closed, Noble slapped the window and trot
ted back to the Komatsu LAV. He scrambled up to the M2 Browning, yanked the load tray back, and slid in a chain of .50 caliber shells.

From the base’s entrance at the mouth of the cave, dark figures staggered toward them one shambling footstep at a time. Nearly all two hundred personnel, including scientists, engineering crew, control room staff, and marines had been turned. The Third Coast was a veritable death trap

Looking over at his friend, Jared Barnes gave Noble the nod. Noble nodded back and trained the Browning onto the zombie swarm.

“Yippy-kai-yay mother fuckers!”
Noble shouted out as he let the hammer drop. White hot needles blasted into the approaching horde and chewed everything up to the consistency of raw hamburger.

Looking out of the back of the bus, Jo
sh squeezed Lindsey’s hand. Lindsey squeezed his hand tight in return, and together they watched the maelstrom of gunfire rain down upon the horde like the wrath of God.

Barnes
snatched up the M4 carbine with grenade launcher out of the back of the Hummer, and started picking zombies off one at a time from ground level as Noble continued to spit fire at them from atop the LAV. Pulling back the slide of the rifle to reload, Barnes turned back toward the bus and screamed at the driver, “Get out of here, dammit! Go!”

Slowly, the
sluggish vehicle lurched forward and inched its way toward the mouth of the gate. Barnes jogged up to the side of the bus and slammed his fists against it. Looking up at the back window he saw Josh and Lindsey waving goodbye. He winked at them then turned around and continued to lay down fire.

“Fire in the hole!” shouted
Barnes as he pulled down the trigger of a grenade launcher. With an ear-shattering boom, dust and debris kicked up from the massive explosions. On top of the loud blast he hollered a booming “Oorah!”

Ulysses hopped down from the
Komatsu with his grenade launcher fully loaded and stepped up next to Jared.

“You ready for this?”

Barnes cocked his M4 carbine, and said, “Like the General always said, fire is the Devil’s only friend.”

“Hell, yeah, brother. Better to burn than fade away,” Noble replied.

They looked at each other and laughed.

Facing the oncoming onslaught, they readied themselves
for another volley then let the fury of hell out of their rifles. Both of them shouted a thunderous “Oorah” straight from the gut as they lit up the cave like it was the Fourth of July.

Several meters underground, Zanato turne
d a corner. He was lost. Again. “Balls,” he cursed, trying to figure out which way he should go.

“Hi there, big
boy,” a sultry voice called to him from behind. Zanato spun around to see Jennifer Hurley leaning against the wall and striking a seductive pose. He didn’t care that she was all covered in blood, she wasn't wearing a damn thing.

“What happened to you?” Zanato asked.

Jennifer laughed. “Does it matter?”

“I guess not.”

“Do you still want to fuck me?”

Zanato’s eyes lit up.
“Are you messing with me?”

“No. I’m dead serious. Come over here. It’s what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it?”

“Hell, yes!” Zanato fumbled to unfasten his pants as he rushed toward her. Pulling himself out, he was about to mount her when she stopped him with a kiss. Her tongue dancing flirtatiously with his, she wrapped her fingers around the back of his head and grabbed his hair tightly as she kissed him long and hard.

Then he felt the sting of hot lacerating steel.

Jesse Zanato tried to scream as he felt the piercing blade slide into his chest but his mouth was gagged by Jennifer’s tongue. She stopped kissing him and looked at his bewildered face.

“W-w-why?”

Jennifer cackled, her laugh echoing down the corridor. “Because you’re pathetic! You’re a vile, loathsome, weak little creature. What gives you the right to enter into my temple and defile it with your filthy, undeserving presence?”

“B-but, you said…”
Zanato couldn’t get out another word since he was choking on his own blood. His eyes grew wide with fear.

Vindictively, Jennifer twisted the knife in his chest, which caused Zanato to shriek out in pain.
Blood spilled over his chin and he staggered back. Tottering, he was about to fall over backward, but Jennifer suddenly caught him by the collar of his shirt and reeled him back into her. His chest slammed into her blood stained breasts and made a smacking noise.

Jennifer yanked out the blade and stabbed
him again, and again, making the blood from his mouth poor out of him like a geyser. Jerking on his collar and bringing him to her lips once more, she lapped up the blood cascading over his lower lip. Her hungry kisses became bites as she cannibalized him. With her teeth, she bit down and tore off his bottom lip.

Zanato
screamed in agony as his flesh was ripped off his body, and with what little remaining energy he had, he tried to pull away from her. But as hard as he tried, he could not escape her clutches. She was too strong. It was as if she had been possessed by something not quite human. Something as unbelievably powerful as it was evil.

Grinning a red smile, Jen spat out the lump of flesh she’d torn off, then slowly twisted the knife in Zanato’s chest, causing him to writhe in excruciating pain. Suddenly Zanato’s eyes, wide with fear, suddenly went blank, and his eyelids sagged and his head rocked lifelessly forward.

Jennifer pushed Zanato’s limp husk away from her and let it fall to the ground with an unceremonious thud. Jesse Zanato’s corpse collapsed to the floor with Hurley’s knife lodged firmly in his chest. He was dead before he ever hit the ground.

A scuffling of feet approached her from behind. Jennifer slowly
turned around to see a sallow-faced monster looking right at her with those spooky white-washed eyes. With ungainly steps it staggered a closer to her, but when she didn’t move it cocked its head in curiosity and stared at her for a moment, as if it were trying to gauge her reaction. It grunted then sniffed the air around her. Peeling back its lips it bared its ugly teeth and snarled. Jennifer didn’t even grimace.

Hobbling back a few steps, the thing looked at her again and again it grunted. She slowly wiped the blood from her lips with the back of her hand and smiled a red toothed grin. The monster moaned and then
, as if it had lost interest, turned around and continued on its way, headed to whatever destination its mindless body took it.

Alyssa crept along the blood streaked wall of the corridor. S
he wanted to avoid Jen at all costs. Easing around the corner she saw the back of General Greer’s green army uniform and instantly perked up. If anyone could take on Bloody Mary, it would be him.

“General!” Alyssa hollered as she skipped up to him. Putting her hand on his shoulder she suddenly felt the but
terflies in her stomach jump up and then commit suicide as they fell back down to the pit of her stomach like lead shot puts. Greer slowly turned around to reveal two ghastly opaque eyes. Alyssa gulped hard and choked down a scream and immediately reversed her steps.

But
she was two seconds too slow, and before she could even react his impossibly strong hands gripping her wrists. Alyssa screamed, and the zombified general jerked her toward his snapping mandibles. She fought back with all her might and tugged against his clutches, dodging from side to side to avoid his biting mouth.

Fighting for her life she kicked and pulled, but
each time he easily whipped her around like a ragdoll and reeled her in again. Using all her strength she raised her foot and slammed it down into his shin. Greer’s tibia snapped with a horrendous crunch. But even with the general teetering on one leg, Alyssa still could not break free. Losing his balance the general flung her to the side and they did a violent somersault together and toppled over.

Floundering on the floor, Alyssa kicked frantically at the general’s chomping mouth. But even though she hit him repeatedly
with the heels of her feet, he just kept on coming. She tried to crawl away, digging her fingernails into the floor, but a hand caught her ankle and dragged her back. Then she felt the sharp sting of teeth sink into her calf muscle. Wincing from the pain she screamed. She screamed so hard she thought her voice box would shatter in her throat.

Alyssa tried to kick his forehead in, but the impac
t only caused his teeth to cut deeper into her leg.

Out of the blue, t
he hollow chopping sound of metal lacerating human tissue slithered its way into Alyssa’s ears. She looked down at her chewed up leg to see Rachael Ramirez standing over the general’s motionless body. She pulled Jennifer Hurley’s blade out of the general’s skull and stood over Alyssa like her guardian angel.

“My God, I’m glad to see you,” Alyssa said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Rachael tossed the knife to the floor and then looked down at Alyssa with a smile and an extended hand. “You didn’t think I’d seriously leave you down here, now, did you?”

Alyssa took
Rachael’s hand and hopped up onto one foot. She put her right arm around Rachael’s neck, and they turned and limped up the hall together.

“I
wasn’t worried,” Alyssa force out a laugh, even though it was just a mask for the pain. Every slow agonizing step sent what felt like needles swimming up Alyssa’s leg.

“Did you
find what you were searching for?”

Alyssa patted her back p
ocket. “Yep.”

“Good. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

Just then a zombie jumped out from around the corner at them. “Grrrah!”

He was a tall dark engineer wearing a blue safety hat and a nametag which read: Pearlman.
Rachael used her forearm to block his abrupt attack, but he was already upon her and quickly sank his teeth into her forearm. She screamed out in pain, and even though she knew her wound would heal almost instantaneously, it still hurt like a son of a bitch. While the creature named Pearlman gnawed on her arm, she drew out the gun Barnes had given her and held it to the feeding monsters forehead.