Waking The Zed (10 page)

Then
Pam looked suspiciously at Dr. Klein. Somehow she had gotten out of the clinic. Was she totally taken by surprise? Did the animal experiments give her some warning of a possibility this would happen? The doctor was armed now, and Pam wondered if she had already had the gun when she entered the clinic
. If so, why didn’t she use it on her two subjects the second things started to fall apart.

She was about to start questioning the doctor when the Zed started renewing their efforts to get through the doors. Perhaps they had heard new voices and the thought of more fresh meat excited them.
Maybe they had simply been joined by more active creatures.

Another thump and a creak echoed through the reception area. The gap between the double doors had widened enough for one of the cre
atures to stick the tip of its fingers through. Instinctively, Pamela glanced outside towards a place of perceived relative safety. She wanted to measure the distance between herself and the front door. She saw a white robed figure head for one of the trucks. That had to be poor Ms. Bell. Somebody must have been able to get her partially dressed before the attacks started. Two more of the mutated creatures, another woman and a man, followed her. They seemed to have formed a small pack. They did not seem at all interested in attacking or approaching each other but merely moved together.

“What happened to her?” the officer said, pointing at the receptionist.
He did not even appear to notice what was happening outside.

“She was infected, and I had to shoot her,” Dr. Klein said. “I had no choice.
She tried to attack me. It was all in self-defense of course.” Pam and Paul exchanged a nervous glance. The doctor had threatened to shoot them for trying to call for help
. Had the poor woman really been infected, or did the doctor just need her out of the way?
They had no way to guess without examining the body. Right now, Pam intended to keep her position against the wall and as close as possible to the outside door.

“Listen
, you had better radio your drivers,” Pamela said, pointing at the lurching figures outside. “Tell them to stay inside the truck if they aren’t armed. They cannot let those things bite them. It is even possible that a scratch could pass the disease. We just don’t know.”

The officer no
dded at one of the lead men. That soldier pulled out a radio and spoke to the truck drivers. But it was too late for the man in the rear truck. He had already opened the driver’s side door, probably assuming the lurching woman needed help. The truck blocked most of their view, but they heard the man swear and then scream eve through the glass door. The officer quickly dispatched three soldiers with a warning, “Shoot first and ask questions later.”

By now a whole h
and had pushed its way through the crack between the ruined double doors. The skin on the hand had been shredded down to the bones in some spots, but still the creature tried to break through. The officer pulled out his sidearm and fired. The gunshot rang out in the small space, and most of the hand dissolved, and yet the stump of the arm still waved in the crack.

Before Pam’s head cleared from the ringing gunshot, t
he door on the left leaned in and Pamela clearly saw the hand’s owner, a large man with a face contorted in a mask of rage and hunger. Below his collarbone, his shirt had been shredded into a bloody mess. The officer fired into the man’s chest, and he fell back into the group behind him. He was only carried by the momentum of the shot though, and his ruined torso still remained upright. Some of the creatures seemed to be growling like carnivores on the attack. As the recently shot creature seemed to waver, other creatures shoved past him eagerly.

“It has to be a headshot,” Dr. Klein said.
Her usually silky tone now sounded hoarse and shaky. By now she had moved closer to Pamela. She was visibly shaken, sweaty, and pale.

But Pamela’s attention was diverted as more pressure began to enlarge the crack between the leaning double doors. A new figure emerged, and this time they could see the face of a middle aged wo
man. Half her lip had been chewed away and they could see the woman’s gums as she snarled. This time the officer took more careful aim. The woman’s face dissolved and she sank out of view.

A
turned man replaced her, and he was pounding his entire body madly against the door. He snarled and lunged, and again, the officer shot him. As soon as he sank another grotesque face replaced his. By this time, one of the soldiers returned to the building.

“Private Davis practically had his arm chewed off before we got to him, Sir,” the soldier reported. “We have a medic with him now, but he needs a hospital.”

“Call for a copter,” the officer said. “You can see that I’m rather busy right now.”

“We also dispatched two of the hostiles,
Sir,” the soldier said. “We’ve got the third one hog tied in the back if you want a live sample.”

“Fine,” the officer said. “Make sure that
any captives are very well secured and get that copter ASAP.”

“The bitten man may turn,” Dr. Klein said. “You need to secure him as well.”

The officer shrugged and nodded, and the soldier left the reception room. By this time the door on the left side leaned on its hinges. The officer gave orders to the two soldiers in front, and they readied their weapons. It was a simple matter of picking of the hostiles as they tried to muscle their way through the opening. In a matter of a few moments, the pounding ceased. Pamela could see a pile of bodies crumpled on the floor through the gap between the inner doors. The stench of blood and feces was overwhelming. Pam picked up the neck of her shirt and held it over her nose until she finished gagging.

“Are there others?” the officer asked Dr. Klein. By now she had taken a seat at the reception desk and leaned her head in her hands.

“Certainly,” she said. “This is a fully staffed three story building. Approximately a hundred and fifty people show up here for work every day. The cryonics and animal labs are on the first floor, but other projects and management office are located on the upper floors. This entire place must be swept. It is also possible that some uninfected people have taken shelter in various rooms and offices. Paul and Pamela managed to get out after the attacks started. The infected are determined, but they do not seem to be particularly fast or clever. They don’t even remember how to open a door.”

“So we can’t just blow this place up? You’re saying uninfected people may have taken shelter in the building?”

“That is correct,” Dr. Klein said. “This building is three stories high, and it will have to be swept. In fact, it is more likely that people on the upper floors would be safe. The things seem to be able to climb stairs but the stairways do have doors. The people upstairs would also have more time to figure out what’s going on. Of course that’s not the critical reason to leave this building intact.”

“What would tha
t be?”

“Well, I’ve got insurance to compensate my client’s estates if we lose the freezers. I’m not likely to go broke over this.”

“That’s nice to know,” the officer said dryly. “After you call out the US Army, it’s nice to know you won’t be out any money. What is the most critical thing, Doctor?”

“Well, of course it’s my research,” Dr. Klein replied as if dozens of people had not died and turned into monsters within the last few hours.
“My work represents a lifetime of achievement. You must be familiar with my past accomplishments. For me to represent my current project as the pinnacle of my career is no small thing.”

Now that the immediate danger was repelled, the officer took a moment to study Dr. Klein. “
You look pretty flushed. Are you injured or ill?” he asked.
Maybe he thinks she’s acting so weird because she’s ill.
Pam rolled her eyes mildly. Maybe Dr. Klein was even ill, but Pam was certain that her behavior had been ingrained a long time ago.

Dr.
Klein attempted to smile, but her expression looked like a grimace to Pam. “I am not a young woman. The situation must have affected me physically. Perhaps I should seek treatment as well. I could certainly use a short rest to clear my head. ”

The officer nodded and ordered two more soldiers to escort the doctor outside to
wait for the helicopter in one of the military transports. Then he looked at Pamela and Paul and said, “You two don’t need to be here. Go outside and wait for the escort too.”

The two young people headed for the door, grateful to be away from the stink and horror.
Surely these competent looking military men could clean out the building quickly.
This’ll all be a fading scene from a nightmare soon.
As she exited the building, Pam hoped to never step inside Future Faith Cryonics again. For all she cared at the moment, the army could blow this place into dust.

Pam
stepped outside on shaky legs. Paul put a gentle hand on her arm to steady her. He still clenched the large wrench in his other hand. They both glanced around the area to be sure none of the shufflers approached. The pretty landscaped area and circular driveway appeared clear.

As a soldier helped Dr. Klein into the back of the truck, the pair hung back a bit.
They had barely spoken to each other, but neither appeared eager to commit themselves to another confined space just yet. Paul still clung to the large wrench, and Pam still had her bent umbrella. It was like the improvised weapons had fused into their hands.

Paul glanced at Pam
and said, “I guess I should offer to look at the wounded driver.”

“The helicopter should be here in a moment,” Pamela said. “I’m not overly eager to climb in the back of that truck. I could be mistaken, but I think Dr. Klein is misleading the soldiers. I think a bite from those things contaminates you. I don’t think you have to die from the injury
first. That is, I’m pretty sure the injury kills you and then turns you into one of those monsters. Poor George had a bite on his arm. It wasn’t a huge bite though. I think I’d seen worse when I used to work at a nursery school with teething toddlers. He got feverish quickly. I went out to look for help, and by the time I beat a retreat back to the Preservation Room, he had turned.”

Paul looked away as she spoke.
“Yeah, I feel pretty bad about that,” Paul said. “You have no idea what is what like when Mr. Barnes and Ms. Bell woke up the first time.”

“Save it,” Pamela said. “Nobody blames you for this. We just need to talk to that officer.”
Within minutes, they heard the steady beat of a large helicopter. It approached from in front of the building and landed at the edge of the guest parking lot beyond the driveway. The officer emerged from the building and approached Paul and Pamela. He looked grim and serious.

“You two get aboard the helicopter. You’ll go to an army bas
e for debriefing. It shouldn’t take too long.”

“We need to tell you something,” Pamela said.
The urgent expression on her face made the officer pause for a moment. Then she quickly recounted her experience with George. She also mentioned that Dr. Klein’s scarf was a bit bloody, but she had no proof the doctor was wounded. She added that they needed to be very careful in case the wounded driver turned. They had no idea if the bite was always fatal, or how long it would take to reanimate. “It seems like the time varies, but I have no idea why.”

The officer listened, but he was obviously distracted.
Even as Pam spoke she knew her story was barely credible. As soon as another officer emerged from the helicopter and trotted over to greet them he passed off the two young people.

“You brief Captain Crawford,” he said. Then he turned to the
second officer and said, “Captain, listen to these young folks. They should be credible witnesses, but be prepared because the entire story is incredible. Also their account of events is a bit out of sync with Dr. Klein’s.”

“Yes, Sir,” Captain Crawford said. He nodded his
head towards the helicopter to lead Paul and Pamela away. As they walked, they saw Dr. Klein being helped out of the truck. She looked shaky but managed to walk while propped up on the arm of one of the soldiers. Two medics bore a stretcher with the wounded driver. He looked unconscious, and Pamela supposed he had been sedated.

She repeated her warning that the wounded man should be restrained, but Captain Crawford just nodded absently.  Blood covered the wounded driver’s
shirt and seeped through a thin blanket. He hardly looked like a threat.

Finally, two more soldiers pulled one of the creatures along. They used a pole, with a chain around his neck, in order to control his movements. His hands had been cuffed behind his back. The creature snarled and jerked, but mostly moved along behind the strong arms of his captors.

“Do you seriously think we want to get in a helicopter with that thing?” Paul asked. He gestured wildly back in the direction of Future Faith with the arm that held the wrench. “You should see what’s going in back there.”

“That individual is under control,” Captain Crawford said. “I have my orders.”

“I don’t have any orders,” Paul persisted. “I am not getting into a helicopter with that poor mad creature.” Before this the young medical student had been fairly passive. Pam had almost thought he seemed boyish. Now he became agitated. He still had the big wrench, stained with gore from Mr. Barnes at the end, and now he was waving it around a bit as he gestured. His eyes looked wild and Pam found herself taking a step backwards.