Deadrise (29 page)

"Nothings for sure girly." He smirked at her as if she were a child.

"Fuck you asshole!" Susan snapped at him. Jenkins just chuckled back at her.

Two soldiers came around the back of the truck, M-16’s in hand. They ordered them out of the truck, which was somewhat awkward with handcuffs on but they all managed nonetheless. The Captain and the twitchy doctor walked over to them from the jeep.

"Now you understand why I can’t un-cuff you right now?" He looked at each of them in turn before looking at Jenkins. "If any of you are infected keeping you cuffed will just make disposal quicker and easier for everyone."

"Nice to know you're thinking about us."

"Take ‘em inside." The Captain ordered the two soldiers. As they went inside Matt heard the twitchy doctor and the Captain begin to argue with each other.

Inside there were half a dozen nurses waiting for them. They were taken into a small room to one side and sat down in chairs. While the two soldiers stood watch over the nurses quickly drew blood from each of them. Once finished the nurses and the soldiers exited the room and the door was closed and locked.

"Are you nervous yet?" Matt asked Jenkins.

"Not at all." Jenkins leaned his head back and pursed his lips under his salt and pepper mustache. Matt didn’t like Jenkins arrogance either. Sometimes Matt just wanted to punch him in the mouth.

A foreboding silence fell across the four of them and in the tiny room time soon lost meaning. Matt didn’t know whether it had been five minutes or an hour since the nurses had left but the door was eventually unlocked and opened. Standing there was the Captain who had arrested them and the twitchy doctor.

"You are all clean." He said as if he wished otherwise. They all breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Even Jenkins.

"So we’re free to go?" Mac asked, standing up. "Remove my cuffs."

"Not just yet." The Captain said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jenkins barked.

"We want to ask you a few questions."

"There’s no need to keep us cuffed." Matt said.

"Maybe, maybe not? I just don’t know that yet."

"This is bullshit Captain. We passed the test. You told us yourself that we’re clean."

"You’d be wise to keep your mouth shut." The Captain looked at Matt with eyes as cold as steel.

"Ask your god damned questions then." Jenkins snapped.

"Where did Zack Thomas first get injured?"

"He was shot a few days ago by soldiers down in Salt lake City." Matt said.

"Why did they shoot him?"

"We were trying to get some gas for our vehicle. The soldiers came up in a jeep."

"So you just started shooting at them?"

"They were trying to rape me!" Susan jumped in. "They killed my father! Zack was just trying to defend us."

"All I care about is when your friend became infected. Luckily he didn’t infect any of you. But he may have infected others. When was his last contact with a zombie?"

"Last night. In Summittown." Matt said.

"We don’t know what the hell that was." Mac said. "I’m the only one who saw it, and I’m not sure what I saw." Mac closed his eyes and retold the story, trying to pull the details from his memory.

"Are you sure it was a zombie and not some kind of animal?" The twitchy doctor finally spoke.

"What did it look like?" The Captain asked.

"It wasn’t one of those superzombies. I fought one of those back at the base. They were big ugly bastards wearing body armor and packing serious heat. The creature I saw was short, but it moved quickly. I only got a couple of shots off before it was gone."

"I think Mac saw our brainsucker." Jenkins said.

"Brainsucker? What brainsucker?" The twitchy doctor moved very close to Jenkins, leaning down until his be-speckled face was only a few inches away. Jenkins fought the urge to kick him on the balls. "Tell me more."

"We were out on a raid yesterday when we found some bodies tied up in a back room. Holes had been punched into their skulls and their brains had been sucked out leaving an empty shell. The bodies and the surrounding area were also covered with a sour smelling slime. The same kind of slime that was found in Zack’s room after Mac chased the creature away."

"A new creature all together…" The doctor said with amazement.

"Now you are telling me there may be another kind of zombie we don’t know about?" The Captain asked.

"This is as new to me as it is to you Captain." The doctor said curtly. He looked at the four prisoners. "We don’t get many zombies up here. We had our fair share with the initial outbreak but they were dealt with quickly. Not many salvagers are willing to bring back zombies, even for scientific study. What specimens we do have we kept from the outbreak and those are all Beta Stage zombies."

"What’s that?" Matt asked.

The doctor looked over at the Captain and waited for his nod of approval before continuing.

"Beta Stage is the classification we give the multitudes of zombies walking around right now. Until recently we believed that there was only one stage of zombification. The stumbling reanimated corpses. But a specimen was found while on a raid that changed that. It was merely a hand. A severed hand composed of leathery flesh and congealed, black blood… And it was still alive. With a Beta Stage Zombie once a limb was severed it was dead. No sign of animation. But this one was different. It would clench and open and when placed palm down it would scuttle around like a spider.

"That sounds like a superzombie." Jenkins said. "Rotted, leathery flesh, almost impossible to kill."

"We’ve been told that bullets are ineffective against them?" the doctor sounded as if he couldn’t believe it.

"You got that right." Jenkins said. "We had to use grenades on the ones we faced and even those weren’t enough to kill them. They were just too mangled to attack anymore."

The doctor and the Captain gave each other an odd look before the doctor continued.

"After careful examination the specimen proved to be a completely new strain of the plague. The flesh and blood is
literally
the virus. Organized as a mobile, autonomous creature. We called it the Alpha Strain."

"So it is a disease?" Susan asked.

"Most certainly… It was first diagnosed as a virus shortly after the initial African outbreak ten months ago. It was easy to detect once they knew what they were looking for…" He paused, staring out into space for several long seconds. "When
they
knew what
they
were looking for…" He repeated it with a bitter laugh. "If
they
had just released the information to civilian doctors this madness may have been avoided. Steps could have been taken to keep it from all falling apart…but it was all kept top secret. It wasn’t released to stateside civilian doctors until after the west coast was overrun. But admitting it was a virus was only the half of it. They didn’t say anything about the Alpha strain. No mention of your superzombies.

Further research proved that we all carry the virus." Everyone gave the doctor a frightened look. "It’s true. Every human being on earth carries the virus in a dormant stage. Only after death does the virus become active and causes reanimation as a Beta Stage Zombie, and then only if the corpse has an intact brain."

"Where did this virus come from?" Mac asked.

"Nobody knows." The doctor said. "One day the dead just started walking."

"This virus had to originate someplace." Matt said.

"Yes but where? Was it hatched in a secret government laboratory? A new bio-weapon gone awry? Or maybe massive deforestation of the African jungles unleashed some new plague that had been cooking in the jungle for centuries? Perhaps it is a natural mutation of the human DNA caused by radiation leaking in through a thinning atmosphere? Or maybe Mother Nature got tired of us fucking with her environment so badly and decided to fuck with us back? Maybe it’s aliens from another world? Who knows? Trying to solve that mystery is like trying to figure out who built the pyramids. It just IS. We can’t worry about how; we’ve got to worry about NOW." The twitchy doctor looked even crazier as he finished speaking, his eyes bulging behind his glasses.

"Is there any way to keep the virus from becoming active?" Susan asked.

"Yes. Don’t die." The doctor got a good laugh out of that one.

"Will you let us out of these cuffs now?" Jenkins asked.

"Even as we speak hunting parties are being dispatched to retrieve your friend." The Captain said, ignoring Jenkins question.

"Why don’t they kill him?" Matt asked. He was torn by the fact that Zack was infected but at the same time he knew that Zack would never want to become one of those deadfucks, wandering around in search of warm human flesh. Matt would shoot Zack himself if only to spare him that fate.

"If he is infected with the Alpha Strain, and they are as tough as you say, disabling him may be the only option." The Captain said.

"Besides, we do not have an intact Alpha specimen to study." the Doctor interjected. "We need him to be brought back as intact and alive as possible." The doctor was looking forward to carving him up.

"You can’t be serious?" Susan gasped.

"Of course we’re serious." The doctor said. "You’ve got to understand that your friend Zack Thomas is dead. He died the second he was infected with the Alpha Strain. He is a zombie now. If given the chance, he will kill you and eat you."

"He was drinking a beer with us just an hour ago." Matt said. "He was a bit tense but he didn’t look sick. In fact he looked as healthy as he did before he got shot."

"And his wounds were almost completely healed." Susan pitched in. "When I said something to him about that he got really defensive so I just let it go."

"If he was turning into a zombie why would his wounds heal?" Mac asked. For once the doctor didn’t have an answer.

But the Captain did. "Because he is infected with the Alpha Strain." He barked. "He may be turning into a superzombie. He may be turning into one of those brain suckers you were talking about."

The doctor turned to look at the Captain. "We don’t know that for certain. That’s why he must be captured and brought back to the hospital for us to study. It could be vital to the survival of the human race." He looked at them all sharply, daring them to argue with him.

"He’s right." Jenkins said. "Zack is no longer human. He’s a deadfuck now, maybe even a superzombie or worse. Matt? Susan? Did you two forget how tough those bastards were? I sure as hell didn’t. He needs to be stopped. If for no other reason than he knows where we were going." Jenkins saw the effect of his words on his companions. "Do you want him leading an army of deadfucks up there?"

"I can’t believe this." Matt said, lowering his chin to his chest. His head was swimming with the insanity of the past week.

"I agree that he should be killed." Susan said. "But not carved up like some sort of lab monkey. He was our friend. Show him mercy and kill him!"

"You can burn him to death!" Matt pleaded. "Even a superzombie will burn. That will surely kill him."

"You must detach your emotions from this." The doctor told them coldly. "Your friend is dead. He
will
be captured and returned to the hospital for vivisection and scientific study." There was viciousness to his voice as he spoke.

"Doctor, please?" The Captain finally interjected. "I think you have made your point."

"My apologies…" The doctor said with a sly little smile. "Now if you will excuse me, I have work to do." The doctor left the room without as much as a backward glance.

"The cuffs?" Jenkins said again.

"The report from the tariff station says a bus load of people came in with you; thirteen adults, two toddlers, one infant and a dog to be exact." The Captain said.

"Check them. You’ll find them as clean as we are."

"Oh we are going to check them. A platoon of men is on their way to gather them as we speak. Chances are they are clean as well. But better not to take chances don’t you think?"

"You don’t have to keep us chained like criminals!" Jenkins snapped. "We are clean. Let us go. If anyone I brought in is infected, I’ll shoot ‘em myself."

"I’m sure you would." The Captain said. "Relax. I’ll have someone in to free you in a moment." The Captain turned and left the room…

Chapter 28

Sunday, June 24, 2001

Uintah National Forest, UT

2:55 PM

Zack came to a halt somewhere in the heavy forest several miles northeast of Park City. He closed his eyes and took a psychic sweep of the surrounding area. He could feel the presence of hundreds of zombies scattered throughout the forest. He opened his eyes and looked around. The zombies weren’t easy to spot but after a few moments he could see them standing perfectly still, spread out through the thick forest. Many of them were looking directly at him yet they made no move toward him.

He felt the powerful presence of the
Other’s,
deeper in the forest, washing over him with an icy wave of darkness. Unable to resist the calling, he moved deeper into the forest. He passed hundreds of zombies just milling about, staring blankly into the sky. After about two hundred yards the forest opened into a clearing. The perimeter of the clearing was filled with deadfucks, and they stumbled aside to let him pass. He was beyond fearing the zombies. He was one of them now...