Z-Virus (8 page)

I inhaled and exhaled in nervousness, my truck probably weigh forty or fifty of me if total altogether, or probably more. I drove slowly to the bridge, keep the speed safe and focus. Some of the planks were missing and rotted, being eaten by old age. I had to move left and right to avoid those broken areas. So far, everything was running smooth, Claire seemed to be worried as she kept on talking through the walkie talkie making sure I am alive. At the middle of crossing the bridge, suddenly the bridge felt like swaying left to right, cracking and creaking sounds was heard from no where. I got really worried, and felt like my heart was about to explode, I even quiver inside my truck. Then the wind cleared up the path in front of me, and also at the back. I looked through my rear view mirror. Things I don’t want to happen, actually happening. A crowd of the undead rushing to cross the bridge from behind me, I only have to pray that God would spare me, I drove and sped up my truck. The bridge was collapsing; I hope I could make it in time. The undead was getting nearer for my truck, I sped up more, ignoring any small hole on the bridge, I talked to Claire through the walkie talkie, "Claire I’m almost there, once I reach to the other side, throw two grenades on the bridge. Please make way!” Soon after, I saw them waiting for me and Claire is ready to do what I told her. "Incoming!" I yelled. Fast as lightning Claire threw the grenades, "Boom!" The bridge finally collapsed and the undead fall to the extreme river down below.

 Chapter 16 

An Old Friend

"That was closed." I said.

"You mean instant death." Claire replied.

"Thank you Claire." 

"That’s what friend is for." She added. Roger was looking after Sarah inside the truck. I could see he was trying to cheer and calm little Sarah. He might think of her as her own sister. 

"That was strange"” Claire said.

"What is?" I asked.

"Them. How did they find us? I thought we had killed them back there. On our way to the bridge there were none of them wandering around accept the one that we had killed."

I understood what Claire meant. Then I saw a bloodied torn piece of cloth on a piece of plank at the end of the bridge. It belonged to Sarah.

"Claire, I think they found us because of this." I showed her the bloodied cloth.

"Blood? Oh no, Sarah! We need to change her clothes or cleaned her immediately! How can we be so careless!" Claire ran to the truck and found her sleeping. I was glad to see her sleep, she must have been so tired. Roger was a good brothe, I know because how he was able to take care of Sarah, even though she has no relation with him at all. We are getting closer to the marked place on the map in Fort Knox but we had to stop in a fashion boutique store, which was long abandoned. We need to change Sarah’s dress for a new one as it would less attract the walkers. She had got cleaned up and wore a new outfit, and we got back to the truck and continued our journey.

Fort Knox was a very big city. There were many skyscrapers, retails shops, beautiful gardens and parks but unfortunately this city was also haunted. The place was so quite and sometimes we saw a couple of walkers wandering around looking for something to feed on. We had to be very careful, as they were very sensitive to sound and smell. As I drove, Claire kept on telling me which way to go, avoiding any necessary obstacles and looking for shortcuts. After several minutes we arrived to the place as marked on the map. It was "Newton’s Future Technology and Past Relic Museum". Claire and I got stared with each other. We should have expected that. The museum was very big the wall were painted and decorated like ancient world such as those times in ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. The four pillars at the entrance looked like somewhat there were many ancient writings or codes that seemed impossible to be cracked. We discussed about our planned before we entered the building. I asked Claire to keep Sarah with her while Roger were going with me. We had to go separate ways to figure out this puzzle and to have more chances that we were able to uncover it.

The museum was very big, it was dark inside, since there was no electricity. We had our torchlights with us and other important gadgets for this mission. Ancient artifacts were kept secure inside a glass display and there were statues of different times from the past and many machines that I guess were the foundation of what devices we have today. We patiently inspected each and every one of them to see if there were any hidden clues or messages within them. But unfortunately, every time we thought we had figure it out we found a dead end. We never gave up and kept on going with our searched.

Claire and Sarah were inside another room, which I guess was art gallery. There were many paintings from the ancient times. It was that moment Claire started yelling my name, telling me to come and see her. Roger and I rushed toward them to know what had happened.

"What is it Claire?" I asked.

"I think I found it." She replied.

"Do you see that massive painting in the middle at the far end of the wall?" Added Claire.

"Yeah, it’s a picture of a red dragon. Wait, did you mean . . ."

"Yes. Do you remember when we solved the pendant puzzle? It says, "As red as an angry dragon, by the flame which it breathes fire, only then I will shine." The painting over there shows a red dragon, it breathes fire toward that circle thing which I guess the sun, and it lights up the dark."

"Claire, do you think there was something behind that painting?"

"Let’s find out."

Just when we were about to move, the power was activated and all the lights were switched on. We immediately moved to another room and hid ourselves behind huge round pillars that supported the room. Then a female voice that sounded familiar to Claire started talking through the announcement speaker. "Well, well, well. Isn’t it agent fourteen? It’s been a long time since we last met. How are you? Come out now, meet me here on the stairs at the entrance room."

"That bitch!" Roger almost shouted. I ordered him to stay calm. I whispered to Claire to be careful. But before she left, she handed me some few gadgets to continue with our mission. She handed me an x-ray scanner device, password encryption device and few balls looked like Sonic Wave but in different color. She went out from her hiding place and met her at the entrance room. 

"Agent twelve. I am well and I missed you too" Claire replied in a mocking tone.

"Oh, such a cutie little pie. Why don’t you just stop what you’re doing, I know you’re not alone here, if you don’t want them to be dead, then just give up and tell me what you’re up to?"

"You wish." said Claire.

"I wish? Ahh, well I wish that you would join me and stop being a bother like an annoying fly perhaps?"

"Enough Viana! What exactly is it that you want? Power? Glory? Praises? Stop this nonsense already. None of this is important anymore. Look the world around you. There’s nothing left. Nothing! No laughs, no smiles, no happiness but all there to see now are darkness and sadness!"

"Oh my, I didn’t know that you can play drama right here. Amateur. I’m sure you know what I want. You have it with you. Don’t lie to me. Tell me now, I’ll let you go and that three other brats hiding over there!"

"Over my dead body."

"You’ll regret this agent fourteen!"

Chapter 17 

Unforeseen Consequences

I asked Roger to help me out to uncover the secret behind the painting. Roger, Sarah and I went back to the art gallery room. Claire and Viana were fighting furiously at the other side. First, I scanned the painting with the x-ray scanner device. It’s clean; nothing was hidden inside the painting or any secret codes. I asked Roger to help me lift up the big painting and put it down on the floor. Then, I scanned the wall behind the painting. "Beep!" There was a beeping sound as I scanned the surface of the wall. I took out the password encryption device from my pocket, it was a very thin device like some ten pieces of paper bind together and as big as a soap. I activated the device and stuck it on the wall and let it ran doing it's job. Then I asked Roger to help me out again to pick up the painting and put it back on the wall, so that no body would noticed if we had done something to the painting.

"Roger, I want you to stay here with Sarah, I am going to help Claire and can I count on you to look after Sarah?" I asked Roger.

"Yes Travis, I will look after her. Don’t worry."

"Stay alert and keep yourselves hidden, okay?"

"I will."

"Good. I'm counting on you."

I left the room and start joining Claire at the other side. I hid myself behind one of the statues near the entrance door. I took a peek from behind the statue and saw Claire having such a hard time fighting Viana. She was no ordinary opponent. They shot toward each other creating messed around the room. The walls, pillars, artifacts and even chandeliers were destroyed from non-stop repetitive shootings. It was definitely hard for me to move fast in my SWAT uniform, though it gave me full protection against bullets. Claire saw me immediately after I waved her a sign to keep distracting Viana while I tried to snipe her from my location. Claire went out from her hiding place, with her hands up in the air holding her guns. 

"Viana stop! I give up. I surrender!" Claire said.

"Oh, you’ve changed your mind now? Well that’s good because if you insist on fighting me you would die for nothing." Viana said confidently.

"I know. That’s why I surrender. I am no match for you. Besides, I am running out of ammo." Replied Claire.

"A very wise decision agent fourteen, so now tell me what is it are you hiding and why are you here?" Viana walked toward Claire, left hand pointing a gun and right hand holding a static whip.

"Follow me." Claire went up half to the stairs while Viana followed behind her. Claire stopped right there and turned back to face Viana.

"It’s here." Claire lied.

"What is here?"

"Travis now!" Upon hearing Claire shouting to act, quick as lighting I took my aim and shot Viana from the back. Bulls eye! 

"You little Slut!" Viana slowly fall down from the stairs to the floor down below. Claire quickly ran towards me and jump hugged me. I wasn’t expecting that but she was very thankful for what I did. She then kissed me. I was all red, I know that because I could feel it, even though I am not looking at my self. She gently released me. Then Roger and Sarah rushed toward us to see what happened. Roger hand over Sarah to Claire and he went to see Viana dead body lying on the floor. He checked her body if she was still breathing but she was completely gone. No signs of breathing, the beating of her heart and movement of her pulse had already stopped. When he was satisfied with everything he had done, he yelled at me from the other side where Viana's body laid dead.

"Travis, Claire! She’s gone! She’s gone!" He was excited to know that his enemy has been punished. The scene turned into nightmare when a gunshot was heard. Roger was shot from the back of his head piercing his skull and the bullet hit another wall. A close range shot was made by Viana who was now standing behind Roger. Slowly roger collapsed onto the floor lying helplessly dead. Sarah screamed seeing him dead, I was shocked and Claire was stunned.

"Stupid boy. I wont die that easy. You can see your brother in the next life now." 

I fall down to my knees trembling seeing Roger died. I promised him that I would help him to seek justice. I was tearing up, my heart broke into thousand pieces. When Claire saw me weakened by what had just happened. She immediately pull out her guns and start shooting towards Viana. She quickly avoided the shots, she moves like a million snakes goes in separate ways. So fast that Claire couldn’t keep up. Viana disappear from our sights but we could still hear her talking.

"I must say that I’m impressed with your plan to distract me and caught me off guards but all of you are still children. Hahahahaha!"

"Now as a gift, I’ll test you with my army of martial artists. Good luck and see you in hell!" Crowd of martial artists came out from nowhere. I saw ninjas, kung fu masters, kickboxers, wrestlers and many more. I gained up all my strength, Claire holding up Sarah and we were standing back to back with each other. There’s one thing I notice about this army of Viana, their eyes are all red. They must have been infected or something. Claire seemed to notice it too.

"Travis, we won’t be able to fight them all at once. But they’re not normal, do you notice these army are not attacking Viana?"

"Yes I do. It seems that she is actually controlling them."

"Exactly. However we are not completely out of option." I get what Claire meant. We just need to be prepared. In a split second, these monsters made it first moved which was also their last. They jumped all at once toward us then Claire and I threw up the Sonic Wave in the air. They dropped numb on the floor and we quickly executed them before times up. We kept shooting each one of them in the head and finally we throw grenades on them. "Boooom!" Blood and flesh flying all over direction in the area. It was totally severe and gore. We hid behind the large pillar in the room to avoid explosion and the blood rain. Viana went out from her hiding place and devastated to see what happened. She was also badly injured from my shot earlier, but missed an inch toward instant death.

Then a man's voice came out to speak "Agent Twelve and Agent Fourteen. Stop this fighting now. You two are creating mess in my favorite place". I took a peek and saw a man in a mask with hat, all dressed in black. Could it be . . . Claire’s master?

Chapter 18 

Unrevealed Truth

"Master I didn’t expect you to come." Said Viana while kneeling down. Claire was kneeling down as well as soon as she heard her master’s voice. I was still hiding behind the massive pillar.

"Look what have you two done? You destroyed every piece of important historical relics here, who's going to replace this priceless artifacts?" Said the masked man while picking up one of the broken pieces on the floor.

"Master, it was agent fourteen who did this mess." Viana pressured.

"No, no, no… I know what I saw and let me judge it." Replied the masked man. "Do you two still remember the rules and protocols of being one of my students? Agent fourteen can you tell me what was that rules and protocols?"