Protect All Monsters (30 page)

“What are you saying?”

“My mutation’s been nothing short of ripped from me, but a part of the monster still exists.”

Out from his jugular vein, a snake-like prong slithered through a gill slit opening in the flesh. It was suspended taut in the air, the circular-toothed mouth gaping open and ready to feast. The material of its body was sinew, veins and flesh. “What the hell is it?”

“Those monsters have my blood in their bodies,” Brenner whispered. “They’ll change in the future…they’ll have my abilities. Tonight, perhaps. I thought you betrayed me, Richard. But the Secretary of Defense, the head of the PSA, they were giving you orders behind my back. You were simply trying to secure the island from the monster threat. I took it as an immediate threat to my existence. Ending the island would be the end of me.

“The PSA betrayed us both. They’ve been keeping in contact with James Sorelli. Harry Truman must’ve wanted to keep a short leash on him. The government wants the monsters to escape the island. James spouted many reasons, but he mainly said it’d be an economic shot in the arm if a war happened that everybody could get on the boat about—and I’m not talking about a war to get Americans united, I’m talking about the entire United Nations. Even the terrorists would be raising up American flags after a war of such a caliber. It’s a heck of a plan. Maybe a desperate and insane plan, but even Iceland and France would be shoving their guns up the monsters’ asses if this breaks out.”

Richard was jolted. “We can end this right here on the island. Kill them all. Fuck the PSA’s plan.”

“You haven’t been attacked one-on-one by them.” Brenner laughed bitterly. “You know nothing of how they’ve changed. They slaughtered me, and I’m better than them—or at least I once was. How will
you
fare against them?”

Richard said, “I don’t plan on exchanging fisticuffs with these assholes. Fine, let the monsters escape to the United States if that’s what they want. But these people on the island have sacrificed their lives, families, friends and sanities for those government bastards. Now we call the shots over our lives.”

Brenner lowered his head, his eye half-open. “They won’t leave without killing each and every one of you. The trek is long in those shitty, makeshift boats they’ve built. They’re hungry already. And they will have a war on their hands the moment they step on American soil. Each of us will perish by tonight.”

Richard was bombarded by conflicting ideas. He couldn’t fight them. He must fight them. He wanted to retreat. There was nowhere to retreat. Innocent lives had to be saved. There was no weapon capable of defeating them. “Fine; then I’ll at least warn them. We die trying to save ourselves. All of them up there can’t hide. Hell, they’ve already slaughtered the second-floor crew. I found their bodies piled up in this corridor. Zombies came to drag them outside. God knows what those assholes are thinking.”

Blood pooled under Brenner’s body. He wouldn’t live much longer. A grin expanded over his lips, mischievous and delighted by an idea. He was keeping a secret.

“What’re you thinking about? Spit it out.”

Brenner’s eye bent into a slit. The smile refused to wane. He was drunk on blood loss. “It’s over for me. But there is a way to fight them.”

“Then speak up,” Richard insisted. “If you don’t, I’m leaving right now.”

“Oh, it won’t take that long. All you have to do is
listen to me
.”

Chapter Forty-Three

The cafeteria was jam-packed with personnel, shift managers and frantic crew members. There were hundreds inside, and many more were ganged up in the hallways. Addey cupped her ears to muffle the booming chatter of voices. The back section was filled with people removing yellow hazmat suits and standing unabashed in their underclothes. The doctors in the medic wing clung to a niche. The cooks stayed in the kitchen, wary of leaving their stations. She thought of Herman, but she decided her efforts here would benefit him more in the long run. She could visit him every hour on the hour when this was over—if it ended in their favor. It’d been reported that the level-two zombies had vanished from the pit. Todd Lamberson said he’d talked to the shift manager in the wolf arena, and the wolves were also missing.

Todd stepped on top of a table, shouting,
“Everybody, let’s calm down
! Our director is missing, and so is his assistant. That leaves us to call the shots. It’s obvious the monsters are up to something. Ever since that secret passage was discovered, everything’s changed. We also know the monsters can only be in one place, and that is under our feet.”

“Does your speech include a plan, asshole?”

“Yeah, what about the monsters?”

“We don’t have weapons.”

“Why don’t we call for help?”

“There’s no outgoing signal. I’ve already tried.”

“How do we protect the people recovering in the medical wing?”

“Fuck it, the government will drop an A-bomb on this place, so kiss our asses good-bye.”

“Then we should be trying to sail off this island.”

“There are no boats.”

“Then let’s make them.”

“Do we seriously have time?”

“That ocean is hundreds of miles.”

“I’d rather perish on the sea than by the hands of those things.”

“Why can’t we fight them? We have guns.”

“Yeah, handguns.”

“Knives are as good as using toothpicks.”

“Fuck listening to this asshole.”

“We’re better off on our own.”

“Brenner and Cortez are either dead or sailing way the fuck out of this place.”

“They’re dead—let’s be honest.”

“Or they’re hiding.”

“Cowards.”

“Let’s wait this out.”

“Wait it out and die.”

“This is our fault.”

“Why didn’t we kill them from the start?”

“None of this was our choice.”

“Now it is. Fuck the government.”

The crowd dispersed. The congregation was fragmented, many abandoning the cafeteria and halls altogether. Todd pleaded, and Addey joined him. “You can’t just leave! Together, we’re stronger. Let’s take five minutes to talk. Give us a chance.”

Jessica and Cynthia begged the group to talk it out more, but the mob decided for them. Jessica stepped down from the table and approached Addey. “These people will get themselves killed.”

Addey was infuriated. “Maybe it’s better to be without them. They’re afraid. Irrational. They’re going to do what they want to do, and no police or army are here to tell them otherwise.”

Cynthia hardened her face. “Then we’re on our own.”

Todd was visibly flustered. “I wish I knew where Brenner and Richard were at this point, especially Richard. He’s the one who joined us together.”

“You have to count on him being dead,” Jessica decided.

“What are you saying?” Addey questioned her. “Until I see a body, I’m not convinced.”

“Just because you have a thing for Richard doesn’t mean he’s any safer than anybody else when they become missing,” Cynthia said. “It’s our decision what we do now. You can go look for him, Addey. It doesn’t matter what you do, really, because I’m doing what I want from now on.”

Todd said, “Look, there are four us in agreement that we’re in deep shit. We can’t sail off this island, though I’m sure some will try. Fighting and hiding, it’s a good strategy. I’d hate to put it this way, but our colleagues will be attacked. We’ll pick off the monsters in the process.”

“Jesus Christ, people!” Addey was astonished. “Aren’t we trying to save lives?”

Jessica disagreed. “You know, Todd’s right. Nobody else is watching our backs. It’s everybody for themselves.”

Addey couldn’t let this go without an argument. “This takes rational thinking. If we locate Brenner or Richard, they might know something we don’t. They’ve had the most communication with the PSA. Perhaps there is a contingency plan.”

“Or the government’s doing this to us so we’ll all die,” Todd said. “They want to finish off the island; why not stop bringing in supplies and eventually allow the monsters to revolt? I swear I’ll see a fucking bomb squeal from the sky, and we’ll be human toothpaste. I want off this island. Period.”

Jessica agreed. “We can’t fight them.”

Addey couldn’t reason with them, so she wouldn’t.

“Wipe that expression off your face,” Jessica warned her, sensing Addey’s disdain. “Just because you fought off some level-two zombies and stood your own against James Sorelli doesn’t mean you know what’s best for us.”

“Then fine, do what you want to do. I’m looking for Richard and Brenner. I want answers.”

Cynthia was confused, stuck between choosing Addey’s side or Jessica and Todd’s. She picked the larger group. “I’m sorry, Addey. I want to escape; it’s that simple. I can’t stand this place anymore.”

“Neither can I, and I’ve been here for only a matter of days. Everything that’s happened to me revolves around the PSA. The island will blow up because of the PSA. The monsters were brought her by the PSA. And whatever battle there is to be fought will be determined by the PSA. That’s why I want to be close to the people who know about the fucking PSA. You go out there on the ocean, they could shoot you down from the skies. The island could blow up, yes, but think about it. Nobody’s going to let you make it back into the USA, or any country. You have secrets. The government has done crazy shit behind the American people’s back. They’ll do anything to keep it hush-hush. They’ve succeeded for over a hundred years.”

“That sounds eloquent,” Todd broke in, “but I’m about action. I’m trusting my gut. Follow me if you want, leave if you want. It’s nothing personal. I consider you all friends.”

Jessica’s eyes went heavy for a moment. Addey felt her sorrow and hugged her close. “You do what’s best for you.” Cynthia came in for a hug too, and Todd finished the group embrace. They wanted to sob and not leave the circle, but a decision had to be made.

“I know it’s nothing personal, guys,” Addey reiterated. “I’m trusting my intuition on this one. You do the same for yourselves. When we’re dead, none of us will be there to apologize for dying. I’m looking for Brenner and Richard. That’s all I know to do.”

“Good luck,” Todd said. “Maybe this will be resolved, and we’ll all make it.”

Nobody put stock in the statement. The three of them left Addey behind. They circulated through the halls and disappeared among the throng of people.

She couldn’t think with the endless cacophony of worried exchanges, so she pushed her way out of the cafeteria.

The siren that blared was cutting loud.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

It was a tornado siren, shrill and foreboding. Everybody froze. Looked around. The conversations were snuffed. The intercoms crackled, then emanated the words. “This is Carl Brenner. Report to the back of the strip club. An armory has been opened. I’ll be waiting there to issue orders. Make haste immediately.”

The hundreds bumbled into each other, pushing, shoving, running and desperate to reach help. Addey hesitated, overwhelmed by the chain reaction. Half the crowd had already powered their way out of the hall and were running toward the strip club. Addey attached herself to the backmost herd. The gym and the living quarters had been abandoned. She kept moving as they entered the shopping area. The bar’s lights were dimmed, the techno music absent. The clothing stores were uninhabited. The red-light district was up ahead, the red curtain drawn.

They picked a strange place to keep an armory.

The front of the club wasn’t visible from her standpoint. The crowd bustled in, the curtain shuffled back again and again and nearly torn from the ceiling. A booming voice could be heard from within the strip club. “Hey—where’s Brenner?”

“There’s no armory here! There’s nothing.”

“Who the fuck made the announcement?”

“Maybe Brenner’s not here yet.”

“Then what’s going on?”

“Brenner didn’t make the call?”

“Then who did?”

“I don’t know.”

She caught the front quarter of people eclipsed by moving shadows overhead. Addey looked up—too late! The lurking anomaly lurched down upon them. They were doused with a heavy liquid. Clear. Viscous. Slithering. Forking. Expanding. Thickening in composition. The liquid upgraded into flesh, patches and squares of skin forming cell by cell, blood vessel by blood vessel, flesh stacking, ATP sticking muscle fibers together. Then in a flash, the level-two dead attacked in full form. Thirty of the workers were taken down at once, devoured by the roaring horde that was born from fluids.

Screams ejected her up the stairs and into the shopping district’s foyer. Nearby, a fleet of vampires charged from the bar. Their pale faces delved into necks and punched through chest cavities for the heart. Fifty, a hundred, two hundred—she couldn’t count them, there were so many, and the numbers kept escalating. Wolves charged from the clothing store, the pack mixing with the zombies who’d changed from liquid to putrid flesh right before her eyes.

They were hundreds strong and still coming!

She was halted by the crouched, naked zombie on the floor between the clothing stores and the stairway. The female thing writhed, her head shaking spastically and on the verge of exploding. Her back split, the spine bobbing up and down as gallons of blood leaked free. Then hands, feet and a body forced themselves from the female, birthing itself. It was a wolf slathered in blood and birth fluids. The wolf uncurled from its fetal position and shrieked. Another body was spit out from the same mother, a vampire this time. The next two were vampires, then three more zombies. The zombie wouldn’t stop giving birth, continuing the cycle of vicious life.