Contaminated: A Zombie Survival Novel (22 page)

About fifteen feet from the door, Frank shined the flashlight in the direction of some noise. The freezer door glinted back at him – open.

“Crap, be on the lookout people, we’ve got a nasty on the loose,” Frank warned them as he swung the light to and fro.

A scream made them all stop.

“It’s got Carson, I think.” Arthur yelled.

Frank left his position at the front and aimed the beam toward the back. Three nasties were on Carson, two latched onto his leg by the knife wound Frank gave him earlier. During the explosion, the bandage was shredded and fresh blood poured down his leg. A third nasty had its hands wrapped around Carson’s neck, ripping and tearing at the mask. Smith stood next to him staring in horror. Frank couldn’t take a shot without the risk of hitting Smith or Arthur.

“Either help him, or move it, you idiots. I need a clear shot.” Frank raised his FNP.

Arthur snapped out of his shock first and pulled Smith out of the way seconds before one of the nasties on the ground almost bit her hand. Frank fired and took down the one choking Carson as it tried to bite his face through the mask again and again.

Arthur used the Sig to put down one as it tore a strip of flesh off the wounded man’s leg. Carson let out a scream as he took the head of the last nasty and smashed it into the wall behind him. Frank ran over and two more flashlights went on.

The first aid kit was taken out, but Carson put a hand up. “Frank, we both know I’m dead. Don’t let me become one of them.”

Frank didn’t know what to do. “Doc, do we have proof a bite leads to infection?”

The lack of response was louder than anything he’d ever heard. Everything was going to hell and Frank needed to keep it together. Carson pulled off his mask and grabbed Frank’s hand pulling him close.

“Be careful, I have no idea who’s pulling the strings, but they’re playing for keeps. The only person they want is the doctor, so watch your back. If there’s another traitor, they’ll kill you before reaching the top.”

Frank opened his mouth to say something when he heard the shot and felt warm blood coat his neck and the front of his mask went crimson. With his good hand, he wiped the clear plastic as much as he could. He stood on shaky legs wondering more than ever how he was going to get everyone out of this nightmare alive.

“Smith, see what you can get from his pack and grab his weapon, we need all the extra ammo we can get.”

***

Arthur glanced away from the mess of Carson’s face. Part of him understood why the man took his own life. If it were him, he would have done the same thing, or at least hoped he’d have the guts to. Frank didn’t look good. Arthur wondered how long before panic and exhaustion tore their shrinking group apart.

He felt Selena at his side. “We really need to stick together, promise me. I don’t trust any of them. The traitor could be anyone.”

Arthur nodded, not wanting to make a verbal commitment. So lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t hear the moan behind him or the shuffling of feet. The smell of rot hit him a nanosecond before two large arms grabbed the back of his neck.

A scream to his left drowned out the groaning creature attached to him. Arthur swung his flashlight to the right to see Selena in the same predicament. He wrestled with his Sig, but knew it was too risky.

“Frank, Smith, could use some help here,” Arthur rasped as the hold on his throat tightened.

In the darkness, only the twitching beams of light could be seen. Sounds seemed louder and more ominous. Arthur heard Frank say a few choice words, and then a shot ended Selena’s pleas for help. A moment later, the weight was removed from his back and he heard something crunch. He turned in time to see Frank kick his boot against a wall trying to clear it of the skull fragments and brackish brain matter.

“Thanks,” Arthur managed to say.

“Don’t thank me yet, I need to check you over for bites.”

Arthur stood still as Frank inspected him and Selena for potential infection. After a few tense seconds, he declared them clear and moved toward the door.

Arthur followed him. “I thought you cleared this floor? And those didn’t have any burn marks on them. They weren’t up here when we blew open the door.”

Frank grabbed him by the elbow and led him to a corner without any regard to the integrity of the floor. “I did clear it with Smith and Lightfoot, so obviously one of them didn’t do what they were supposed to. As for the lack of burn marks, I have no idea. They might have wandered down here from somewhere else. I have no idea what to think or who to believe. All I know is you’re the prize, Doc, so stick close.”

Arthur rubbed his arm as the words sank in. The prize? He was just a scientist who wanted to study rocks and prove there was more in space than people ever imagined. He thought back to how things fell in place and he felt like an idiot.

Sunset Inc. had stolen the samples for him to work on. They wanted him to discover something. No, they expected him to discover something. He knelt and pulled off his backpack. After he unzipped it, he pulled all of the rocks out and tossed them. Whatever they might contain wasn’t worth the death of hundreds of people, perhaps more if this had spread outside the silo.

“What are you doing?” Smith whispered.

Arthur felt his chest seize and almost screamed at her words. Either she’d snuck up on him, or his reflexes needed some serious honing.

“I’m getting rid of these samples. Whatever’s in them is killing people.” Arthur stood and walked away, not caring what her response was.

He thought of the flash drives and data. He would protect them with his life. They were the only proof that something illegal happened. He felt a weight lift off his shoulders as he gained purpose. He needed to live so he could expose the company known for research and development as nothing but a modern day group of mad scientists. The samples needed to stay with him, so he went back and repacked them.

He clicked off his flashlight and followed the beam from Frank’s at the door. Frank put his hand on the handle and lowered his head when it opened easily. He turned to look at Arthur. “They want you to go up. They’ll be waiting for you.”

Arthur nodded and smiled. “I know, but I’ll do whatever you think is right. I have no idea what they want from me. I didn’t find anything of significance in the few hours I was in the lab, so even if they do capture me, it’s not like I have anything to give up to them.”

“Well, I’ve had enough of this, time to finish it.” Frank pushed the door outward and walked out.

Arthur let Selena go after, followed by Smith. Taking up the rear, Arthur thought about the way the sliver of the sample shimmered in the light and about how the density readings were wrong. In fact, he was running a second diagnostic on the sample when the explosion happened, as well as testing a sample in the mass spectrometer.

If the machine was set to explode during a test in order to get the particles into the air and infect those inside the silo, Arthur realized in that scenario, he wasn’t the prize, he was collateral damage. A problem they would need to make sure went away and kept silent – forever.

***

“I can’t see a damn thing they’re doing in there, Barrow. What the hell’s going on? Who sent them a message to go to Level 8? I want you to use every satellite we have as well as every under the table, black market, behind the scenes dirty politician at our disposal to find out who the hell just sabotaged my ‘indestructible’ silo,” John yelled at his assistant.

Barrow nodded and wandered off to the corner to make the necessary calls. John didn’t know what to do. Up until this point, he’d been able to keep an eye on his team. His technicians were able to unlock the doors going down, so at least, he felt like he was helping them in some way.

He took another one of the white pills to ease the pain in his chest. The clock indicated only a couple of hours had gone by, but he felt as if he’d been going at this problem for a month straight.

“Sir, they say the explosion was massive, designed to take down all signals in or out. They were able to confirm it was an inside job. Someone on the original team set this in motion from the day the project broke ground.” Barrow slid his phone in his pocket and waited for his next set of orders.

“That Collins fellow, the one we talked to before. Did he seem off to you? I think he seemed nervous. In fact, I think he was lying”

Barrow nodded.

“Me too, get him back in here and let Mike question him.” John watched his assistant leave and hoped he’d get some answers. In his whole life, he’d never had a project go tits up like this one. If he was still the head of the company tomorrow, it would be a miracle. Though, if there was a company tomorrow, he would be surprised.

“And Barrows,” he yelled, “send a car for my wife. Get her over here now.”

***

Frank took each step one at a time. Cracks and other signs of weakness made him cautious. As they reached the door for Level 6, he cracked it open and shined his light inside. Several nasties roamed the floor, most of them naked. He thought back to when they came through here the first time and couldn’t remember who was supposed to take care of the showers. Didn’t matter now, there was a mess, and as usual he had to clean it up.

He pulled out his FNP, glad his preferred weapon fit in one hand, and whispered to the others, “We have some roamers in here, so use your light attachments and take these bastards out with short bursts.” Frank hated to make the ammunition sacrifice, but in such closed quarters, the risk of harm coming to Selena or the others was too great.

With the door fully open, Frank and Smith entered first, the sounds of gunfire attracting what was left of the mob toward them. This time they went in fast and hard, blowing off skullcaps, and shattering craniums. The sounds of bodies hitting the ground and the slopping of fluids had become static to them all; white noise in the background of a living nightmare.

Within seconds, the nasties were taken care of. Frank examined the floor as best he could, given the circumstances and waved them forward when he deemed it safe.

Ten feet away from the exit, something triggered his instincts. He slowed his steps and glanced around the room, that’s when it hit him. The door was open. Either something or someone came in after them, or left. If they left, he needed to hurry his group the hell up in case they were locking the place down after the person got out. Anyone who came in after them likely met the gathered flesh eaters and was no longer a concern.

Frank scanned the room once more and entered the stairwell. He listened a moment trying to tune out the rumblings of the structure as it fell apart. He took the steps quicker this time, paying less attention to security, more concerned about being trapped. His thoughts ran toward being buried alive and panic drove him on.

The entry to Level 5 stood propped open. A leg was caught in between the door and frame preventing it from closing. He recalled the charred bodies and walking Roman candles. This leg, however, didn’t have so much as a tinge of soot on it.

“Wait for me there,” Frank said to the three behind him. Anger and irritation pushed him when all he wanted to do was give up.

The leg twitched when he neared it. The owner seemed to struggle when they heard him. Whether they wanted to eat him or outrun him was the question. He moved closer and with gun raised, he pulled the door open wide. A man in a mask rolled over and held his hands up. Frank kept his weapon up.

“Who the hell are you and where did you come from?”

“I was sent in after your team to extract some samples from Level 12. I repelled in with a team, but something went wrong. The explosions went off early and all the others were trapped. I planned to follow you until I got what I came for, but when the explosions went off on Level 8, I ran.”

Frank eyed the man. “If you’re working for someone else, and were sent in here to do bad things, you have to know confessing all that gives me grounds to kill you.”

“You’re not going to kill me. I’m the only one who can get you out of here. Plus, all surveillance capabilities as well as communications have been knocked out permanently, so my boss will have no idea I spilled. We work together and then go our separate ways on top,” the man said with a smug smile.

“Tell me who you’re working for,” Frank demanded.

The man shook his head. “Not a chance, but you can call me Ryan.”

Frank still held his weapon on the man, something didn’t add up. This guy, Ryan, was part of a team, but was weaponless and unable to free his leg, not to mention, he knew about the explosives that had been set.

Frank used the muzzle of his FNP to nudge Ryan’s leg. “What happened here? Why can’t you free yourself?”

The man rolled onto his back revealing two severely burned hands. “I can’t do much of anything right now. I’m at your mercy, but you need to make a decision soon. There’s a timer counting down, and when it hits zero, we’re never getting out of here.”

Frank called to the others as he helped Ryan to his feet. “Come on up, we got a new recruit, call him Ryan. He’s been sent here by a bad guy, but is willing to help us get out of here.”

The stairwell crumbled behind the Doc, the last one to enter. Frank motioned them forward. “Get moving.”

***

Arthur noticed they were on some sort of office floor. He scanned with his flashlight while Frank and the other guy worked on opening the other door. Ryan said people would be waiting for him at the top, so Arthur took a few moments to access the flash drives on the netbook.

The screen cracked at some point, but he could read bits and pieces, none of it good. The notes of a researcher named Dr. Kellerman indicated Sunset Inc. had been harvesting samples from space for years. An unidentified component in all of them was being studied for potential uses in all modes of scientific experiments. From cancer to Alzheimers, all the way to an airborne toxin for the military.

One of those uses was to help grafting of human body parts, curing diseases, and various other tests, which based on the collection of people hanging in bags indicated they didn’t go well. The doctor summarized their studies as being barbaric and of no use to the scientific community, but a new discovery by a Dr. Covington might inject some much needed help into these projects.