Dead Soil: A Zombie Series (3 page)

“Well, I’m going to head out while crazy is occupied,” Luke said as he looked down at the gold watch on his wrist. It was half past midnight.

“Yeah, we’re going to nod off now too.” Liam tied the last garbage bag closed and tossed it by the door.

Christine dragged her feet along the beige carpet. Little pieces of shiny confetti stuck in between her toes. She peeled them from her feet, but when she tried to throw them away they stuck to her fingers. No amount of flailing freed them. “Dammit Allison,” she mumbled as she shuffled off to the bedroom, still flicking her hands through the air. She sighed and tossed herself back onto the bed.

Liam stopped in the doorway and smiled at her. He’d never been so happy in his life.

III.

Liam’s phone beeped relentlessly early Sunday morning. At first he thought it was part of his dream, then a truck backing up in the parking lot outside their bedroom window, and finally the sound of an unread text message on his phone on the bedside table. He groaned and rolled over. It was a struggle to open his eyes as he rubbed the back of his hands over them. Everything was a blur.

He patted the table in search of his red-rimmed glasses and put them on. He blinked a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes and the remnants of his dreams. There was a red light blinking on his phone. When he pushed the button on the side the time flashed. It was six-eighteen in the morning. He threw his head back and sighed. Despite his desires to drop the phone and go back to sleep, he read the message.

Dr. Hyde

Please come in to work today, as soon as you can. I have something important to tell you. There’s still work to be done.

IV.

Liam arrived at Valparaiso University at eight in the morning on the dot, like every work morning, though it was his day off. His legs moved swiftly as he rushed to Dr. Hyde’s office, as if he were gliding instead of walking.

Dr. Ronald Conrad joined his side from an adjoining hallway and tried to keep pace with him. “What’s this all about?” he asked with perfectly rounded eyes.

“I don’t know,” Liam said through labored breath as panic rose in his stomach. There couldn’t be something wrong with the vaccine. It’d worked. They did the trial. He saw it work.

Liam burst into his boss’s darkened office. He stopped with his hand still on the doorknob. Ronald ran into his back, his hands up to brace the impact. The only source of light was a small lamp that gave off a dim orange glow. Behind the desk Dr. Hyde sat hunched, a soft rattle emanated every time he took a breath, the movement of his shoulders almost undetectable.

“Dr. Hyde,” Liam said as his chest clenched at the sight of his boss. “Dr. Hyde, are you OK?” He rushed around the desk and bent down at his side.

Ronald stayed where he was with his hands on his hips as he tapped his foot. He did a small circle while he rubbed his hand over his blonde hair to slick it back.

“The vaccine,” Dr. Hyde huffed out through slightly parted, cracked lips. They were blue around the edges.

Liam bent in closer, his ear next to the doctor’s mouth.

“No…good…” Dr. Hyde gave a hacking cough and struggled to raise his arm to place his hand over his mouth.

Liam looked at the desk and saw drops of blood splattered over the large, paper calendar. He took a deep breath.

“Call nine-one-one. Hurry!” Liam said to Ronald as he reached out to Dr. Hyde. “Just relax. Help is on the way,” he said louder than he needed to. His heart beat at twice its normal speed.

Dr. Hyde’s breath slowed. It hissed from his chest with every exhale. “The trials…they’re all…going…” he gasped. His pale blue eyes were distant.

Liam stood up straight and covered his mouth with one hand. His lips trembled. He turned to look at Ronald, who had taken a few steps out of the office to call the police, his back turned to them.

Dr. Hyde’s body shook violently as he coughed again. The sound echoed through the office and down the hall. He threw himself forward, face down, onto the desk as he struggled to breath between fits of coughing. More blood flew from his lips to speckle the surface of the desk with red droplets.

“Oh, God, Dr. Hyde!” Liam said as he turned to him again and bent over him. He lightly touched the man’s back to feel his chest wrack with force. “Dr. Hyde! Ronald, help!”

Ronald rushed in, but froze in the doorway. Dr. Hyde strained to take in air as blood oozed from the sides of his ivory lips. A puddle formed slowly under his face and crept outward. Then, all at once, the office fell silent.

Dr. Hyde lay still. He no longer gulped for air like a fish out of water. Blood reached the end of the desk and dripped over the side as Liam still stood bent over him, frozen. He shook his head slowly, his eyes wet.

“My God,” Ronald whispered. “Is he…?”

Liam didn’t hear him. He couldn’t hear anything. All his focus was on the now dead Dr. Hyde who lay across the desk, arms outstretched before him.

“Liam…Liam!” Ronald yelled, finally making his way across the office to put a hand to his friend’s shoulder. He shook Liam from his stupor.

“We have to help him!” Liam yelled as he reached out to an inert Dr. Hyde. “We have to save him!”

Ronald pulled at Liam’s shoulders as he struggled to grasp Dr. Hyde, sure that there was something he could do to bring him back. He swung his body to try and break free from Ronald’s grip

“He’s gone, man. He’s gone. There’s nothing we can do. Look! He’s gone.” Ronald said as he threw his arms from Liam and gestured to Dr. Hyde, who remained silent and unmoving.

Liam broke down. Death had played an important part in his life, but he’d never seen it up close before. He’d never seen the life of someone he knew extinguished before his eyes. His whole body shook as he tried to pull himself together. His knees wobbled as he stood up straight.

Ronald rested a hand on Liam’s shoulder to lead him away from the dead man slumped over the desk.

“Wait,” Liam said as he looked over his shoulder. “Do you hear that?”

Both men strained their ears, rooted where they stood, and leaned their bodies forward toward Dr. Hyde. A low rattle followed by a hissing wheeze grew in volume until there was no mistaking what it was.

“He’s alive!” Liam yelled and rushed back over to the doctor. “Dr. Hyde, can you hear me? Are you OK?”

The doctor’s fingers flexed and released. His nails scratched deeply into the wood of the desk. The rattling subsided and transformed into a low, rumbling growl from the depths of Dr. Hyde’s throat.

Liam backed away slowly, hands held out in front of him as if his boss were a possibly rabid dog. The man clearly needed help. He didn’t know why he was frightened. He should’ve given him CPR, but all he could think about was getting as far away from him as possible. He jumped when he felt the solidity of the door frame at his back.

“What the…” Ronald mumbled next to Liam, his head leaned forward as the rest of his body pressed against the wall.

Dr. Hyde’s head moved from side to side in a jagged, broken motion, the growling built until it escaped his lips. Blood dripped from between his teeth as he lifted his head slowly. His eyes opened to reveal sickly yellowish-green irises veiled with a milky glaze, sunken in and surrounded by dark circles. As he stood up, his bones cracked like the popping of bubble wrap until he stood, slackened, with the desk in front of him. It was a small barrier between him and the two terrified doctors.

“No…fucking…way,” Ronald whispered as his hands reached behind him to feel for the opening of the door.

Neither men wanted to make a move. Liam didn’t know what they were looking at, but scrambling in a panic felt wrong, like painful and certain death. Liam wanted to say something to Dr. Hyde, sure that the man was lost and in some sort of pre-death shock, but nothing came out when he opened his mouth.

Dr. Hyde twisted his head slowly to the side like an animal assessing its prey. A moan escaped from between his red teeth. Liam gasped loudly and the doctor’s head snapped to focus on the source of the sound. He wretched his mouth open and forced out a high cry as his feet dragged on the floor to move him alongside the desk and then forward. He gave a guttural growl with his arms outstretched, his stiff fingers flexed to grip the first thing they came in contact with.

Liam turned and fell through the doorway at top speed. “Come on!” he called out to Ronald, who ran as fast as he could but still fell behind Liam at lengths.

There was no thought of trying any of the other office doors to take shelter behind. No one had been there to unlock them since it was Sunday. All Liam saw in his mind was the pathway laid before him to the parking lot. He wasn’t going to stop until he was in his car, his vision tunneled to the door at the end of the hallway that lead to the reception area.

He looked over his shoulder when he heard Ronald cry out. His friend was spread across the floor and was trying to crawl in a scramble away from Dr. Hyde, who closed in on him. Ronald attempted to stand up, but slipped on the tile and fell back down onto his chest. Liam stopped to face his friend. “Ronnie! Come on!”

Dr. Hyde threw himself down onto Ronald with his mouth wide open.

“No!” Liam screamed, hunched over as his fingers pulled at his ginger hair. “Ronnie!”

Ronald reached out to Liam from down the hall as Dr. Hyde’s jaw clenched the back of his neck. There was a blood curdling scream. Ronald’s mouth opened and closed with silent gasps. Dr. Hyde tugged at him until he was on his back, face up, to watch the horror he would behold. Nails dug into the helpless doctor’s face and shoulders and ripped the skin and muscles from the bones as his body jerked. Dr. Hyde groaned, his glazed eyes rolled back, as he shoved the flesh into his mouth. He chewed at it vigorously.

Liam couldn’t move. He sobbed, repeating Ronald’s name in a whisper as he watched in disgust and terror. His friend had just been torn apart before his eyes and he’d done nothing to stop it. What could he have done?

Once Ronald fell still, Dr. Hyde no longer dug into him. His head raised as his shark-like, dead eyes stared right at Liam. He pushed himself up off the ground and shambled down the hall towards the only live prey left.

Liam couldn’t take his eyes away from what used to be his best friend lying broken and bleeding on the floor. He gurgled blood through his ripped throat and then, against all odds, rose slowly to stand up. Liam squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. He was sure he had to be seeing things. Ronald stood in a pool of burgundy blood that dripped freshly from his wounds and down his pale blue button up shirt. As he turned his gnarled face up to the ceiling, he let out an appalling shriek.

Ronald started forward and passed Dr. Hyde as Liam ran for the door. He pushed on it and moved the handle up and down to no avail. Somewhere in the depths of his memory he remembered he had to pull the door in order to open it. He shoved his way through just in time to miss the superhuman grip of Ronald’s cold, dead hands.

Liam’s breathing was labored as he ran at full speed out of the building and to his car. He let out gasping screams to the beat of his pounding feet. He felt his pockets for his keys and pulled them out, but the sweat in his eyes prevented him from seeing which button unlocked the doors. He pushed them all at random until he finally found the right one and heard the click as the locks popped up.

Meanwhile, Ronald and Dr. Hyde were closing in on him at a hauntingly slow pace. Every time Liam looked over his shoulder they were a few paces closer, their mouths open and stained with black, dried blood.

There was no one else around to help Liam. He was far into campus and students weren’t permitted to go near the labs unless it was for class. He was all alone. He yanked open the door, shut himself inside, and slammed the palm of his hand down on the locks.

The thing that used to be Dr. Ronald Conrad made it to the car first and pressed itself against the window, pounding its fists into the glass. With each strike the window became streaked with dingy, darkened blood. The corpse of Dr. Hyde made its way over and followed Ronald’s relentless attack on the car to get to the meat inside.

Liam’s hands shook violently and he struggled to put the key into the ignition while jaws snapped at the air. Putrid eyes locked onto Liam’s.

“This can’t be happening,” he repeated as he sat in the car, his eyes squeezed shut, the sound of dead fists beating against the window a distant sound in the background. Somewhere, he mustered up the strength and courage to step on the gas and drive away from what used to be his boss and friend. He looked over at the blood streaked window and noticed a spidering crack. The sight sent a shiver down his neck and arms. He moved his eyes forward to the road as breathing in became harder for him to do.

V.