Human Extinction Level Loss (Book 2): Substation (The Last Stand of Gary Sykes) (3 page)

Beverly clutched her coat to her chest, as if trying to build a layer between her and the man that stood before her.  When he took a step toward her, she instinctively stepped back, her own subconscious mind telling her she needed as many things and as much space between them as possible, a cue that her conscious mind wanted to dismiss but instantly began to doubt it could.

“Like I said, Mr. Johnson, the phones are down and the gages all seem to be normal…”

Jason Johnson continued to glare at her.  Beverly’s eyes flitted past him, to the door and her escape.  She took another step back and Johnson’s eyes flared at her movement.

“I, uh… I turned off the television.  I just couldn’t sit here and listen to all of that, you know…” Beverly said.

She took a step to the side and her breath caught as she saw Johnson’s head turn to keep his eyes on her.  She started towards the door, trying to flank him but he moved quickly, again blocking her access.  Beverly stared into Johnson’s eyes and she knew he was not there.  She threw her coat at him as he charged her. 

Beverly turned and ran across the room.  She hurdled over the couch in the lounge area, trying to get space and things between them. 

Johnson’s eyes focused like a laser beam as he came at her.  He stumbled over the couch and fell, but quickly rose.  As his hands thrust out for her, he pawed at the television, sending it crashing to the floor. 

Beverly screamed and raced towards the door.  She almost made it, but Johnson cut her off.  She screamed again as she was forced to retreat back across the room.

Down in the pits, Reggie and Mack were replacing the access cover on the Number Two generator when they heard what sounded like a distant crash emanating down the gangway from above.  The two men looked at each other for a second, their eyes growing large upon hearing the scream. 

“Hey, did that sound like—” Mack began before Reggie cut him off.

“A scream?  Yeah.”

The two men finished replacing the access panel then made their way towards the gangway leading up to the control room.  Half way there, their pace picked up as a second, more pronounced and desperate scream met their ears. 

Reggie and Mack rushed up the gangway and into the control room.  They stood, shocked at the sight before them.  On her back on the floor was Beverly.  Her face was contorted and red.  Her hands were around Johnson’s neck and she was trying to push him off of her. 

Johnson’s eyes were bloodshot and sweat poured off him as he worked his jaw, trying to bite her. 

Beverly was so focused on keeping Johnson off of her that she did not notice Reggie and Mack standing there.  As the shock of what they were seeing washed over them, they recovered.  Both men rushed over to Johnson and hauled him off of Beverly, throwing him back in the process.

Seeing Mack and Reggie, Beverly gasped in a breath and shouted at the two men.

“He tried to bite me!”

Both men turned to look at their boss as he rebounded off the wall and charged them.  Without thinking, Reggie and Mack both threw a punch at Johnson’s head.  There was a soft thwacking sound like a ball bat hitting a side of beef and Johnson fell, unconscious.

Mack and Reggie turned to Beverly.  Reggie ran his hands through his dark hair as Mack swallowed hard.

“What the hell happened up here?!” Reggie shouted. 

Beverly, her hands flat on the lunch table, leaned over and struggled to catch her breath.

“I don’t know!  The phones were down and I was about to leave when… he was just standing there.  He chased me around the room and tried to… bite me!”

Reggie and Mack looked down at their fallen boss.  His shirt was soaked in sweat, but other than that he looked like he always did.

“Oh, man!  We clocked the boss!”  Reggie said.

Mack and Reggie stared at each other.  Beverly stood and glared at them.

“We’ve got bigger problems than that, you assholes!  He tried to bite me, BITE ME!” she shouted, emphasizing her words.

Both Reggie and Mack stared down at Johnson.

“What should we do, now, Reg?” Mack asked.

Reggie did not reply, only stared at Johnson.  Beverly gathered up her things that had been scattered around the room in her effort to get away from Johnson.

“I don’t know what you two are going to do, but I am getting the hell out of here,” Beverly said as she rushed towards the door.

Thinking that was the best idea they had heard in a long time, Mack and Reggie turned to follow Beverly out.  Mack stopped and grabbed Reggie’s arms.

“What about him, man?” he said. 

Reggie took a final look at Johnson,

“Screw him!” he said.

Both men turned to catch up with Beverly who careened into a running Gary as he came plowing through the door into the control room.

“Dammit Gary, get the hell out of the way!” Mack shouted as Beverly ran into him.

Beverly backed up and sighed, looking at Gary.  “It’s all right, Gary.  I just have to get out of here.  I suggest you do the same,” she said as she tried to maneuver around him.

Gary put out his arm, stopping her and she gave him a hard look.

“Gary, I’ve got to go!” she shouted.

Before Gary could open his mouth to explain himself, Reggie yelled at him.

“The boss is down, looks like he tried to attack Bev, Gary!  You need to move your skinny ass—!”

“Wait!  You said, Mr. Johnson is down?!” Gary cried, cutting off Reggie. 

Gary rushed forward and looked down at the fallen Jason Johnson.

“He came in here, and… I don’t know… he tried to attack me… like those people on the news,” Beverly said.

“Which is why we have to get the hell out of here, man!” Reggie said.

Gary sighed and looked at all three of them.  “This is bad, y’all,” he said.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Mack said.  Haven’t you heard what we’ve been saying, we’ve got to go!”

Beverly turned back towards the door.

“Look you guys work it out.  I’ve got to get home to my family,” she said and made a bee-line for the exit.

“Wait a minute!” Gary yelled.  “You might want to hear this.”

Beverly got to the door and was about to leave, when she turned back around and looked at Gary, exasperated.  Reggie and Mack stared at him. 

“I got about half way through doing the safety walk.  I was out by the North end when… I saw them…”  Gary’s words trailed off.

Three sets of eyes stared at Gary, who turned and looked down at their boss.

“You saw who, Gary?” Reggie asked, his voice slathered in anger and determination.

Gary looked up at Reggie then glanced around at the others.

“You know… Zombies.  The ones I saw were outside the North fence.  There couldn’t have been more than three or four.  There’s no access point there, but if Johnson tried to bite you…”

Beverly took a step away from the door, towards Gary.

“What are you saying, Gary?” she asked.

Gary looked back at Johnson and his words came soft and low.

“If Mr. Johnson tried to bite you, then something must have bitten him,” Gary said as he looked into the sinking face of Beverly.  “It means Mr. Johnson went outside the gate, or… some of those things got inside the gate.  It means…”  Gary’s words trailed off, some part of him not wanting to finish the thought.

A panicked Reggie finished the thought for him.

“It means those things are out there ready to eat us, man!”

Three

“Just everybody calm down!” Beverly shouted. 

Emotions had taken control and everyone was shouting at each other about what needed to happen.  This wasn’t getting Beverly home any quicker and she had had enough.  Gary, Mack and Reggie all shut up and looked at her.  Beverly gathered herself and resumed a normal tone.

“Okay, listen.  Nobody wants to get home faster than I do, but it doesn’t look like we can just waltz out to our cars anymore, so we need to come up with a plan. So, what’s the plan?” she said.

Once again, Gary, Mack, and Reggie all started talking at once.  Beverly held up her hands.

“One at a time!  Gary, go,” she said.

All eyes turned to Gary.  He ran his hands through his hair and took a breath.

“The first thing I think we should do is tie up Mr. Johnson.  If what the news was saying was true, the aggressiveness was just the first stage,”  Gary said.

All eyes turned to the still unconscious Jason Johnson.

“Okay… Good thinking, Gary.  Mack, Reggie, grab a chair and put Mr. Johnson in it.  I am going to find something to tie him up with,” Beverly said.

Mack and Reggie went over to their boss.  Reggie stopped and looked down at him.

“Hey Mack, you ever had to grab a Johnson this big?” he said. 

Mack smiled and grabbed his crotch.

“No, but your momma does, most every night,” he said.

The two slapped hands and enjoyed their adolescent joke.

“Guys, whoa!” Gary said, gesturing towards Beverly.

Reggie and Mack look chagrined and glanced toward Beverly.

“Sorry, Bev,” Mack said.

“Yeah, we didn’t mean nothin’,” Reggie said.

Beverly ignored them as she spied the long orange extension cord that ran from the far wall to the television.  She went over and unplugged it.

“Nice, guys,” Gary said.

Reggie scowled at him,  “Screw you, Gary, grab his feet,” he said.

The three men plopped Johnson into a padded rolling chair as Beverly came over with the extension cord.  In a few minutes they had him secured to the chair. 

The four of them stood back and looked at Johnson tied to the chair.

“So, what now?  How does this work, man?” Reggie asked.

Nobody answered.  Finally, Gary spoke up.

“Well… Usually, in a zombie type situation—”

“Usually in a zombie type situation?!  There ain’t nothing usual about this situation at all, Gary!  I mean what the-” Reggie shouted, cutting off Gary.

“Hey!” Beverly interjected.  Her frustration had reached beyond a boiling point and she wasn’t about to let the conversation devolve into another chaotic shouting match.

“Let him finish!  The time for making fun of Gary is over.  What you used to laugh at is outside, so maybe we listen to what he says, okay?” Beverly said.

Reggie and Mack got quiet. 

“Go ahead, Gary,” Beverly said.

Gary took a deep breath and continued.

“Well, it’s like I was saying.  In any zombie type situation, there is usually some period of time between the bite and when the person turns, right?  So if he came after you, Bev, we gotta figure that he has started to turn,” Gary said.

“And we’re sure he got bit?  I mean he came after Bev, but maybe it was cause he thought she got bit or something, I don’t know,” Mack said.

The four all stared at Johnson again.

“Well, should we check him out, see if…”

Nobody stepped forward or said anything.  Finally all eyes came to rest on Beverly.  She stared back at them in disbelief.  She sighed and looked at Johnson.

“Fine, you bunch of cowards,” she said.

Beverly moved in close to Johnson and started to inspect him.  When she moved in closer, she noticed a spot of blood on the back of his collar.  Gently pushing the collar down, her face blanched. 

“What?!  What is it?!” Reggie hollered.

Gary, Mack, and Reggie came around behind Johnson and looked at what Beverly was pointing at.  At the nook between Johnson’s neck and shoulder, a jagged strip of flesh had been ripped away.

“So he’s definitely been bit!  Now what?!” Reggie cried.

Gary kept his eyes on Johnson. 

“The only way to stop a zombie, I mean what makes zombies so scary is that they won’t stop.  You can’t shoot them in the chest or wing them.  If they can’t walk, they will just crawl after you.  The only way to stop a zombie is to get them in the head,” Gary said.

“What, like shoot him?  Okay, anybody bring a gun to work?  Cause I sure didn’t,” Mack said.

“Shoot the boss?  I mean he’s the boss.  Everybody hates their boss, but-” Reggie said.

“We don’t need a gun!” Gary said, cutting off Reggie.  “Blunt force trauma will do the trick, too.  We just need to destroy the brain.”

The sound of Johnson’s voice startled them all back to reality.  They all looked in shock as their boss squirmed against his restraints.

“Hey!  What’s this?  Who tied me up?” Johnson asked.

Reggie approached Johnson.

“Sorry, boss, but you got bit, tried to eat Beverly and everything, so now we have to bash your brains in.  Nothing personal,” Reggie said.

Johnson laughed at what he clearly thought was a joke.  When he saw nobody else laughing he worked against the restraints anew.

“Come on, guys, enough already.  Let me loose.  We have work to do if we want to go home,” he said.

“Sorry, boss, but you’re not going anywhere.  Gary said we have to destroy your brain cause you’re a zombie,” Mack said.

Jason Johnson could feel the nervous tension creeping up his spine.  As he studied the faces of his employees he began to suspect that maybe they really weren’t kidding.

“I didn’t attack Beverly, I wasn’t…” Johnson’s words trailed off as a disturbing memory flooded his mind. 

Going outside the gate, of something slamming into him from behind and a sharp pain in his shoulder, fighting it off and running back inside the gate, locking it behind him. 

Did I lock the gate?
He thought, suddenly not sure.