Rising: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction (9 page)

Let Loose

Jed charged into the guard room to find two very unhappy guards sitting on the floor.  They were trying to free each other with limited success. Jed and Leekasha had been too busy reviving zombies, to bother controlling them.  One was pretty overweight, and was having a difficult time of it.  With the alarms going off, the thought of being found by their colleagues rolling around on the floor tied up with their own restraints didn’t appeal to them.  The big one kept losing his balance and falling over as he tried to open a drawer.  The sounds of the alarms seemed to have everyone in a bit of a panic. 

“How do I open the cell doors?”  Jed directed his question at both of them.

“Screw you freak.”  The big one said.  “Why the hell would we do anything for you?  Just wait till the others get here.  I’ll be more the happy to open your cell door, and throw your ass in for good.”

Jed try to mentally force the fat guard to tell him how to open the cells.  That didn’t work, so he tried the other guard with the same result.  He was so frazzled with the alarm and exertion from helping Leekasha he had nothing left to control the guards.

“Fine, the heck with both of you.  I’ll figure it out myself.  If two buffoons like you can do it, there’s no reason why I can’t.”

“Go ahead freak.”  The big guard said.  “I don’t know how you got yourself free, but it won’t matter once the others get here.  You’ll be back to your doped up loser self in no time.”

Jed walked to the control panel, giving the mouthy guard a kick in the ribs and a smile as he walked by. 
How hard can this be?
He thought.  The control panel was archaic.  It looked like original equipment from when the prison was first built.  Most of the numbers and letters were worn off. 
How the hell am I supposed to know what switch is for what?
 
They probably leave it this way just to make it harder for prisoners to sneak in and cause problems.  I could just start flipping switches and see what happens.  What’s the worst that could go wrong? 
Jed looked back at the big guard on the floor, who just grinned back offering no assistance.  The alarm persisted.
Damn it. I’m running out of time. 
Jed could see Leekasha through the windows.  She slowly got up and started moving towards him.
I need to do something.

Jed just started flipping switches.  The first couple he tried, didn’t do anything.  He flipped them back, and tried a few more.  Cell doors opened, but not the ones he wanted.  Two doped up zombies entered the common areas.  He flipped the switches back, but the doors remained open.  Looking through the windows, Jed could see Leekasha shaking her head, and pointing to the cells with revived zombies she wanted open.  Jed moved his hand down the row of switches, guessing which cells went with which switches, and flipped a few more.  Two cell doors for revived zombies opened. 
OK, good.  Now we’re getting somewhere.  Let’s try the next few. 
Jed flipped the switch at the end of the row, and every door in the block opened.
Oh shit!

Every zombie in the block exited their cells almost in unison.  Those most anxious to get out were the five revived violent zombies.  They started wreaking havoc on the rest of the population, attacking and devouring every zombie they could.  Leekasha tried to get to one of the good revived zombies, but couldn’t get through the crowd fast enough.  The violent ones were on the good zombie tearing her apart.  Zombies didn’t normally attack other zombies, but the revived zombies appeared human to them.  Like famished sharks in a tank of tuna, it was a bloodbath.  Leekasha tried desperately to control the violent ones, but in her exhausted state, she could only hold one at a time.  There were too many. 

A violent zombie burst into the guards office and lunged for Jed.  The guards on the floor rolled under the  desks to hide.  Jed reacted just in time to duck out of the attackers way, placing a chair between him and the zombie.  It provided little protection, but kept the zombie just out of arms reach.  The two of them danced around the chair while Jed repositioned it to provide the best protection. 
Eventually this bastard is going to get me.  I can’t keep this up forever.
  As soon as Jed had a direct line to the door, he swung the chair at the zombies torso knocking it to the floor.  The zombie noticed the two guards lying on the floor next to him.  Jed raced out of the office.  He paid little attention to the the screams of the guards as he made his way back to Leekasha.

Leekasha was holding one of the violent zombies in check, when Jed made his way to her.

“I’ve got one locked in the guard office, with enough food to keep him busy for a while.” Jed said.

“I’ve got this one good.” Leekasha said motioning to a zombie sitting on the floor leaning against the wall.  It rocked back and forth, banging the back of it’s head against the wall.  “There are still three more  violent ones out there.  They’re going to rip apart the good ones we’ve revived if we don’t find a way to stop them.”

Just then doors at the other end of the block open and a dozen prison guards barged in with fire hoses blasting the crowd.  Two of the guards fought their way through the crowd with riot shields and metal batons.  They were making their way to the guard office.  The guards with hoses cleared a path in front of them.  One of the violent zombies almost got to the guards, till the fire hose water hit him straight in the chest, and knocked him unconscious against a wall.  Leekasha and Jed kept to the periphery of the crowd, staying well away from the guards. 

“Their trying to get into the office, to get them back into their cells.”  Leekasha said.  “I don’t think the revived ones will go back.  That’s not good.  The bad ones will be on them in a second without the crowd to keep them separated.”

“Maybe the guards will get them first.”

“I don’t know.  I don’t think they realize there are revived zombies in the crowd.  I don’t think they’ve ever seen a zombie revived before.  They’re not going to be happy when they find out.”

The guard leading the charge made it to the office and went inside.  The others stood outside the office keeping the crowd at bay.  No sooner had the guard entered the office, then the zombie inside attacked him from under the table.  It pinned him against the window and ripped into his throat.  Blood shot all over the window.  The rest of the guards reacted by dropping the fire hose, and sending a hail of bullets into the office.  The zombie was knocked onto the control panel where it twitched for a few seconds then died.  A second guard entered the office, and cleared the zombie corpse off the panel with the butt of his rifle.  He flipped a switch killing the alarm, and spoke into the microphone saying “Go home. Go home. Go home.”  The Pacize controlled zombies in the crowd started heading for their cells.  The remaining revived ones did not. 

“Jed, you’ve to stop those violent ones.  They’ll rip the good ones to shreds.  See if you can one of them to attack the others.”

Jed picked up on one of the violent zombies racing towards them.  He focused, but the zombie kept coming. Another violent zombie was trying to get at two good ones on the other side of a table.  The two good ones managed to stay on the opposite side of the table, but kept running into each other.  The violent one kept getting closer.

“Jed, try harder.”  Leekasha pleaded.

Suddenly, the zombie coming towards Leekasha and Jed stopped dead in it’s tracks.  It turned around, and headed back towards it’s cell.  The zombie chasing the others around the table did the same thing.  Leekasha released the one she had under control, and it walked towards it’s cell.  Even the remaining prison guards dropped their weapons, walked into cells, and closed the doors locking themselves in.  Only the revived good zombies remained in the common area.

“What the hell!”  said Leekasha.

Standing in the center of the room up on one of the tables, was Christa.

“Isn’t that your friend?” Jed asked.

“Oh yea.”  Leekasha replied smiling from ear to ear.  “Best damn friend on the entire planet.”

Enough Is Enough

“Damn girl, you look pretty good for someone just back from death’s door,”  Leekasha called out, walking towards Christa.

“Hang onto that thought for just one second.”  Christa answered motioning to the guards office.

In all the excitement, Leekasha had momentarily lost track of the situation.  There were still guards in the block about to make their lives very difficult.  Christa, Leekasha and Jed worked together to mentally suggest to the guards to drop their weapons, combat gear, and radios. Then, they had them lock themselves into two of the remaining opened cells.

Christa jumped down of the table into the arms of Leekasha. 

“I didn’t know if I was ever going to see you again.”  Leekasha said.

“Lucky for me it appears that you are.”  Christa answered.

“Lucky for both of us actually.  I didn’t know what was going to happen to our grand plans without you by my side.  What the heck happened to you?”

“I’m not entirely sure.  Last thing I remembered, was us sneaking into this cell block and you trying to revive a zombie.  That one.”  She said motioning towards Jed.

“Hi, I’m Jed,” He said offering his hand to Christa and smiling.

“Hello.”  Christa said cautiously shaking his hand.

“Thank you so much for getting me out from under that drug.  I have no idea how I’m ever going to repay you both.”

“You could start by not going on a psychotic murdering rampage in your quest for world domination.”  Christa answered. 

Jed looked confusedly to Leekasha.  She waved off the comment and said, “Christa don’t worry he’s fine.  He’s no Andreas.”

“Who’s Andreas?”  Jed asked.

“Nobody you need to worry about Jed.  Christa’s just being a little paranoid.  Let’s just say she had a bad relationship with the last zombie guy she revived.  Christa I’m so sorry we left you behind.”

“You left me behind?  I don’t even remember that.”

“Yea, there was too many of them … guards I mean.  Just after I revived Jed here, they stormed in.  We killed a guard … actually Jed did.”

Christa gave Jed a suspicious look. 

“No Christa, it wasn’t like that.  If he hadn’t then I’d be dead.  He did it to save me.  He’s on our side.  We were coming back for you, but by the time we got back you were already gone.  Did they take you somewhere?”

“I woke up in the infirmary.  I have no idea how I got there.  They had me restrained to the bed, but weren’t treating me or anything.  I don’t think they realized who I was.  The warden came by, and had a lot of questions about how a couple of girls broke into one of the most secured prisons in the country.  His prison.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Not a single thing.  Like I said, they didn’t even know who I was.  They seemed more worried about you and Jed here.  They didn’t come  right out and say it at first, but they were pretty concerned that you had a zombie running around with you.  They didn’t understand how that could happen.  After that, I just took control of them and they told me everything.  They’ve been locking up all kinds of zombies here they had no other place for.  Apparently, they’ve been doing that in prisons all over the country for years.  Usually, they make ideal prisoners.  They do all the jobs regular prisoners do, but without any of the discipline problems.”

“What happened to you though?  You just passed out when I had my back turned, and your were bleeding from your ear.  You scared the hell out of me.  I thought you were dead at one point.”

“Well, apparently they also do some experimentation with the zombie populations in prison.  They’d been pumping some new type of Pacize through the air, and it really messed with my system.  It happens to about ten percent of the population.  Most come out of it, but a small number actually die.  I was lucky, and came out of it.  Just to be on the safe side, I made them turn off the system.  Actually, to be more precise, I had one of the staff sabotage the distribution machine.  They won’t be pumping anything special into our air for quite a while.”

Leekasha shook her head. “What the hell is it with these people, that they think they can just treat us like that?  We’re not here for them to poke like lab rats.  They can’t just lock us up as prisoners for no reason.  Most of the zombies locked up in here probably never did anything wrong to anyone.  Their bodies just changed … evolved.  Evolved for the better.  It’s time we showed them what we’re really capable of.”

“I do think it’s time to do what we came here for.”  Christa said.

“What exactly is it you girls have in mind?”  Jed asked.

“Nothing too sinister.”  Leekasha smiled.  “Just a little global domination.”

“First things first sister.”  Christa added. “We need to secure this prison block.  The warden’s not going to be too happy when he wakes up in restraints in the infirmary along with the rest of the medical staff.  We’ll be getting more visitors soon.”