Outbreak: The Hunger (27 page)

“I’m alright,” he says, staring at the walkie-talkie,  “I’m just really hungry.”

That faint hunger he had a moment ago begins to grow.  It isn’t just a hunger that emanates from his stomach.  His whole body feels hungry as he climbs into the van.  He seems to have a clear focus on things now, and needs to eat and satisfy his hunger.  Deep in his mind, he knows something bad will happen to him if he doesn’t eat something.  He pulls out his phone to call his wife.

“Hi,” he says in a deadpan voice.

“Jesus Christ, Daniel!” comes the frantic voice on the other end of the line.  “Where the hell have you been?  Are you okay?  Work has been looking for you.”

“I’m fine,” he says.  “I’m on my way home now.”

“On your way home?” she repeats.  “Do you have any idea how late it is?”

“I had a little nap is all,” he says as he stares out the windshield.  “I’m coming home and I’m really hungry.”  He looks at his eyes in the rearview mirror and is shocked to see his blue eyes have turned grey.   

He smiles.

“I’m fine, honey,” he continues,  “I’m just really hungry.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” his wife asks.  “You don’t sound like yourself.”

“I promise I’m great,” he says as he continues to stare into his own lifeless eyes.  “I’ll be home in about fifteen minutes.”  Before she can say anything, he adds, “I’m just hungry honey. Really hungry.”

Sils Research Facility, Outside Killeen, Texas

The room is still.  Nothing is moving any longer. Animals and humans alike are still on the ground.  Most of the animals are dead from the Rangers’ attack, and those not dead have entered a state of stasis as their bodies try to repair the damage caused by the Rangers’ bullets.

The humans littering the floor are worse off.  Reynolds is missing his lower jaw and has lost a lot of blood, but the change occurring in his body will eventually repair those injuries.  He won’t grow another jaw, but he will wake up.  Eventually.  Laning had already entered a deep REM stage.  His “sleep” won’t take as long as Reynolds’ will.

Butsko and Wilder are trying to figure out what has happened, and how those animals escaped and attacked.  As they’d run to try and help, Jim had escaped and managed to chew his way through six lab techs before Wilder was able to bring him down. 

Everything appears calm as soldiers, lab techs and men in hazmat gear run around, trying to clean up and contain the aftermath.

Reynolds and Laning are placed inside hazmat containment bags as they are  prepared for transport.  Reynolds is still a long way off from waking with the hunger, but as the men lift Laning onto the gurney, his eyes shoot open.

He looks around as he feels the hunger growing inside him.

It won’t be long now. It won’t be long at all.

Arboretum Area, Austin, TX

I wake in a cold sweat.  This seems to be the norm now.  I’ve woken up this way the last couple nights.  It’s only been two days since the events at the zoo.  “Events.
” 
That’s a nice way of describing what happened.  A lot of people lost their lives that day.  The thing that really scares me is that I’ve never heard anything about it on the news.  My wife, Sarah, had met Fi and I at the emergency room around four o’clock that day.  By the time we got there, the pain in my shoulder had already started to fade away--which was strange, because I hadn’t taken so much as a Tylenol after being bitten.

It took about an hour to see a doctor.  A nurse had looked at my shoulder and said that it didn’t look bad, that the wound appeared to be closing already.  I’d gone into one of the bathrooms to see for myself.  The nurse had been right. It looked as though it was almost completely healed.  I’d stayed anyway to get a shot of antibiotic, just to be safe.  When I finally got to see the doctor, he’d asked where I got my wound.  Something inside me prevented me from telling him it was an animal bite.  I didn’t think he’d believe me and by this time, it looked like a bruise. 

I told him I’d tripped and slammed my shoulder against a concrete wall.  I didn’t even ask for an antibiotic shot like initially planned because that would have raised too many questions.  He’d sent me away with a topical cream. I’ve never filled the prescription. 

When we finally got home, Fi and I told Sarah all about what had happened at the zoo.  She’d sat in silence, stunned at what we were telling her.  I’ve always been honest and open with Sarah, but I just couldn’t get myself to tell her about what I’d done to Julie.  I told her how much she’d helped me protect Fi, but not that she was the only person who hadn’t died from an animal attack.   That’s a memory I will suffer alone. 

In the middle of telling our story, she’d gone over to the TV and put it on the local news.  There had been nothing about the massacre at the zoo.

As we’d tried to relate our entire tale, Fi had sat on my lap on the couch.  She wouldn’t leave my side.  Her head rested against my chest, and after relating a particularly violent part of our experience, I would playfully throw her down on the couch and hold her arms, tickling and buzzing her stomach with my mouth.  Fi always loved it when I did that. I’d started to get the feeling that Sarah hadn’t completely believed us, but I couldn’t blame her. Even I had trouble believing it. I’d finally taken Fi to bed and read her some stories.  I knew she was exhausted, but also knew that she had some horrible images just waiting to greet her as soon as she closed her eyes.  I figured she’d be crawling into our bed later that night and most likely for several weeks. 

As I left her room that night, she’d said something to me that I will never forget.

“Daddy,” she’d said while trying to fight off sleep. “You’re my hero.”

“What you’re telling me is really out there, John,” my wife had said as I’d rejoined her on the couch.  “Way out there, even for you.”

“Do you think I made all this shit up and convinced Fi to play along?” I’d asked, getting angry.

“Of course not, sweetie. I just find it hard to believe there was a massacre at the zoo, and there is absolutely no mention of it on the news.”

That had bothered me as well.  I’d told her about Brice and Jason and the connection with Sean. 

“Maybe you should have told that doctor about the wolf biting you,” Sarah had said, concerned.

I’d taken off my shirt to show her my ‘injured’ shoulder.  There had barely been a scratch on it.  “He would have thought I was crazy if I told him that, only hours before, a wolf bit me.  I’m starting to doubt that a fucking wolf bit me.”

“What if those animals were carrying some kind of virus?” she’d asked.

I couldn’t think of anything to say to make her feel better.  “Look, I’m really tired and my eye still hurts.  I’m gonna call it a night.” 

I’d taken about three drops of Azopt to try to get my eye straight.  It’d cleared up slowly and I knew that sleep would be the best thing for both my eye and my body. 

That night, I think I went from being awake to falling into a very deep sleep in seconds.  I don’t remember having any dreams that night.  I was grateful for that.  I was afraid I would see the surprised look on Julie’s face as the knife sank into her belly when I closed my eyes.  I wouldn’t be able to handle that.  Mercifully, I was so exhausted that I fell straight into a deep REM sleep.  This would also be the last night I would sleep through the entire night without waking up in a cold sweat. 

It was also the last night where I would wake up without a voracious hunger.

I slept thirteen hours last night.  Sarah had said she’d been worried a few times and had tried to wake me up.  She’d pushed me and yelled my name, but said I’d slept through every attempt to wake me up. At one point, she’d taken my pulse and had been about to call an ambulance.  

Sarah said I’d looked dead, and any doctor would have agreed with her. 

As she was calling the ambulance, my leg had twitched and I’d begun breathing again. After that, she’d let me sleep, checking in on me every half hour.

I still can’t recall anything particular about that night of deep sleep.  I don’t remember having any dreams, but I have vague recollections of feelings.  I can remember feeling a warmth throughout my entire body and the feeling that everything was going to be different when I woke up. 

After my thirteen-hour slumber, I wake feeling better than I ever had.  Usually on rare days when I get more than seven hours of sleep, I wake feeling more tired than when I went to bed.  Not this time.  This time I wake feeling that warmth inside me, but there is something else.  Something like…

…a hunger.

Not the usual ‘I-just-slept-thirteen-hours-and-need-a-hearty-breakfast’ hunger.  This hunger is hiding behind that warmth and keeps intensifying the longer I don’t eat.  This hunger spreads throughout my body and goes far beyond the pit of my stomach.  Every inch of my body is experiencing this hunger, and every part of me wants to consume and eat.

The hunger is also become something other than about food. 

It’s turning into a craving, but I still can’t figure out what it is.  It goes beyond simply satisfying my hunger. It is an urge, a desire to fulfill some sort of purpose.  I need to figure out what that purpose is, and the hunger is consuming me to the point where I can’t think about anything else.

Pulling my shirt over my head, the hunger in me is stronger than it ever has been.  The warmth is
becoming a furnace.  My skin is hot to the touch.  Walking down the stairs to the kitchen, I know what it is the hunger wants from me.  It is so clear and obvious that I feel stupid for not recognizing it before.

Sarah is in the kitchen, making breakfast.

“Good morning sleepy head,” Sarah says. “You had me scared to death a few times last night.”

I walk past the kitchen ignoring Sarah’s greeting.  Fi is sitting on the couch watching her favorite television show,
Charlie and Lola.
Fi barely notices me as I slowly walk toward her.

Sitting down next to her. The burning inside me grows hotter.

“Morning, Daddy,” she says cheerily.

I stared at Fi, as I finally start to understood what my hunger wants from me.

“Morning, sweetie,” I say, watching her show.  “I think someone is about to get a visit from the tickle monster,” I finally say, turning to her.  She giggles as she pulls a couch pillow closer to her body.

I extend my arms, wiggle my fingers as I slowly lean over her …

…
my hunger is so clear now.  I feel stupid for not recognizing it befor
e
…

I take the pillow away from her body as I grab her arms, just like I’ve done a thousand times before.  She is playfully screaming as we fall onto the couch.

…
the hunger inside me has finally revealed its purpos
e
…

I start tickling her tummy with my mouth, making a “buzzing” noise.  Fi always laughs so hard when I do that.

…
everythingaround me dissolves as my purpose become clea
r
…

Fi hasn’t noticed that I’ve pulled her t-shirt up a little bit, exposing her tummy.  The skin is soft and I can still smell the soap on her from her bath last night.

…
myworld goes black as I move in to fulfill my new purpos
e
…

My “buzzing” stops as I run my teeth down her ribs.  She is still laughing and I can hear her trying to catch her breath.  I let her inhale …

…
thereis nothing left inside of me except my purpose.  I am finally going to satisfy that burning hunge
r
…

As Fi inhales, I sink my teeth into her soft flesh.  Her screams of laughter quickly become screams of pain and horror.  The man she called her hero just days ago is tearing into her flesh.  Her blood fills my mouth as her mother comes running into the room. 

Sarah freezes at the sight before her.

I have already opened up my little girl’s stomach, and her intestines start unspooling off the couch and onto the ground.  Fi’s screaming becomes less intense with each breath. Her life is draining from her, yet I know I am also passing something on to her.

…
I finally feel satisfied.  My hunger is subsiding, for now.  I finally understand my hunger,  mydesire.  I am fulfilling my new purpose.  I am passing along what is inside m
e
…

It wants to live on, and I will do anything to fulfill its desires
.

And I do.

Read on for a free sample of  Convoy 19: A Zombie Novel

About the Author

Scott Shoyer has had a love affair with the horror genre since seeing
The Last House on the Left
(1972) and
Cannibal Ferox
at the tender age of nine. In college, Scott studied philosophy and after earning his Ph.D. in 19
th
Century German Political Philosophy, moved to Austin, TX to be with his girlfriend. They married in 2003 and have 2 children, Braeden (10) and Fia (7). Scott went back into the “family business” and became an Executive Chef, running some of the busiest kitchens in Austin. 

Scott also runs the popular and successful website
http://www.anythinghorror.com
where he writes about the various facets of the world of horror. He spends many late nights dividing his time between writing for his website and writing horror novels, novellas, and short stories.

Scott is writing the sequel to
Outbreak: The Hunger
and plans to further explore the zombie world he created in a series of novellas. He is also busy outlining several other new horror projects.