Zero, p.6
ZERO, page 6
Nine minutes remaining…
A group of special ops entered the hospital. There were ten of them, a gathering of both men and women. The trained assassins were dressed in all black and armed to the teeth. The government had received information from an anonymous source that the cure for the zombie epidemic sweeping across Alabama was located in Mercy Hospitallater known as ground zero.
Eight minutes remaining…
Special Agent Sparks made his way down the dim corridor. Dead bodies littered the hall. Some of the corpses wore hospital scrubs, there were some in hospital gowns, a couple in security guard outfits, and a large number wore digital fatigues. The dead that lay at his feet did not concern him. Sparks was more focused on the dead bodies that moved about.
The wary agent glanced around at all the blood that covered the walls, floor and ceiling. The lights overhead flickered on and off, while others were out completely. The agent moved slowly so he didn’t come up on anything unexpectedly.
Seven minutes remaining…
There was static on his radio and the voice of his commander came through. “Sparks, what’s your location?”
The man reached for his two-way radio while keeping his eyes on his sector. “Sarge, this is Sparks. I’m currently on the seventh floor. Everything seems…wait a minute, Sarge. I think I hear something.”
Six minutes remaining…
Special Agent Sparks heard a weird sound over the normal noise of sparking wires and dripping blood. It was a loud, infamous crunching sound. He quickly raised his weapon into the firing position before continuing down the hall. Eventually, he came to a door where the sound seemed to be originating from.
Five minutes remaining…
Sparks took a deep breath to steady his nerves then he shoved the door open. The soldier entered the room with practiced precision. He checked his right, then he checked his left. Everything was clear. He walked toward the middle of the room where a curtain divided the area. The sound was coming from behind the cloth partition. Special Agent Sparks swept the curtain back.
A female zombie looked up from feasting on a dead body. It saw the armed soldier and let out a ghastly howl.
POW-POW! Sparks fired two shots at the zombie’s head and the monster fell back. The agent walked over to where the creature lay and he fired another shot to ensure that the creature would never move again.
Four minutes remaining…
Once again, Sparks took a deep breath. The whole expedition was a strain on the poor man’s nerves. If he was to list his top ten fears, zombies would be number three. There were numerous things about the creatures that qualified them to appear on his list of fears. He hated the way the undead creatures lurched about, and a person could never be sure when a zombie was preparing to pounce from the darkness. Last, but certainly not least, was the monsters’ horrible visages. The grotesque faces that he had seen would forever haunt his dreams.
Three minutes remaining…
“Sarge, this is Sparks. I encountered a zombie, but I neutralized the“
His transmission was interrupted when “fear number three” crept up on him and clamped its jaws on his neck. Special Agent Sparks resorted to his military training, and with a well placed chop, he was able to dislodge the beast.
Two minutes remaining…
Justin stumbled back then let out a bone chilling howl. Dry blood-caked the side of his fearsome maw and dotted the slashed military uniform that he currently wore. Acquiring the digital fatigue outfit was Justin’s last rational act, before he was lost to the curse forever. He had used the uniform to infiltrate a pocket of resistance put up by a well-trained group of soldiers.
Special Agent Sparks lifted his weapon, but before he could fire, the zombie launched at the man and knocked the weapon upward. Bullets flew from the muzzle and riddled the ceiling with holes. Plaster showered the pair.
One minute remaining…
Justin wrestled the weapon from the frightened soldier and slung it across the room. With unfathomable strength gained from his constant feeding, the monster lifted Sparks into the air by his neck and slammed him against the concrete wall. The agent was so busy with trying to breath, that defending himself was the farthest thing from his mind at that point.
Zero…
All of a sudden, there was a sound at the door. Justin turned his head just in time to see someone fire three shots into his skull. His time had ran out.
Justin dropped to the floor and Sparks fell immediately after. The grateful man gasped for air.
Sergeant Rodriguez, the leader of their mission, strolled over to the hurt agent. “Did he bite you?” Rodriguez asked calmly.
“Yeah…he got a good chunk…of my neck before I could fight…him off.”
Without hesitation, Sergeant Rodriguez aimed his weapon at the agent’s head and fired three more shots. Special Agent Sparks fell over dead. The leader of the expedition turned his back to the gruesome scene and grabbed his radio.
“Sparks is dead. I repeat Sparks is dead. Let’s hurry up and find that damn cure so we can get out of here.”
00:00 hrs
Somewhere in Atlanta, Georgia, a young man by the name of Chris Jones was at a nightclub debating on whether he should go home or not. News concerning the events in Alabama had not yet reached the rest of the states. The government kept things nice and quiet while they moved to quickly restore a semblance of order. Therefore, the inhabitants of Georgia went about their normal routines, ignorant of the horrors that existed just next door.
“You know what?” Chris said to his friend. “I think I’m just gonna go home and spend the rest of the night with my ol’ lady. Ain’t nothing popping off tonight.”
“Ain’t nothingman, look over there at the dance floor,” Mike insisted.
Chris turned from the bar and looked to where his friend was indicating. The man took a slow swig from his beer bottle as he watched a light-skinned woman dance seductively to the music. Her movements were like that of a snake charmer; hypnotizing any man who happened to look her way. The lady’s tight, red dress left little to the imagination and that was beneficial for one as dense as Chris. His eyes took in her beautiful face, and proudly displayed cleavage. The man licked his lips as his sights took in her thin waist, plump bottom, and finally…her sensual thighs.
“Damn,” Chris muttered. Strong, sexual urges bubbled up within the man and there was only one way to extinguish the fire that burned within his loins. He took one last sip from his bottle then sat it on the counter. “Aye, I’ll see you later.”
“Ai’ight then!” Mike said with a laugh as he patted Chris on the back. “Go head and handle your business, boy!”
Chris strolled across the club, seeing nothing but the woman in the red dress. The colorful lights flashed all around him. The DJ’s next selection got the man’s adrenaline pumping and he used that sensation to increase his courage as he approached the woman. He weaved through the dancing people with a one track mind and halted right behind the lady in red. Without looking, she backed her bottom up against his crotch and started grinding. His nature began to rise.
Chris looked back at the bar with an expression of surprise. Mike gave his friend a quiet standing ovation.
The woman leaned back so her face was close to his and she said something that Chris was unable to hear over all the music. He thought it might have been her name, he wasn’t sure. “How about we go somewhere that’s a little more…calm?” Chris asked loudly.
She turned to face him and smiled slyly. “I’d like that.”
**--**--**
Termination Papers
By Suzanne Robb
Jerrod Howlins sat in his office and tapped a pen on his desk. The paperwork in front of him covered in confidential stamps, with several lines blacked out. He got the gist of it though. The government was looking for something to create a super-soldier. They wanted an inoculation they could provide to troops on the frontline under the guise of protecting them.
The goal of Project Re-Genesis was to alter the internal structures of the human body so when an injury occurred, the body would be able to heal itself within mere seconds.
Jerrod knew they meant well, but he didn’t think they had the interests of the soldiers at heart. First, they planned to inoculate the soldiers without telling them. Secondly, the kind of alterations happening would be painful and most likely result in the death of some. What they were asking his company to do, would be an alteration of human DNA.
When Jerrod tried to bring these points up, General Thorne, the man in charge of the project, paid him a personal visit. In very certain and specific terms, Jerrod had been told he would either agree to work on the project, or they would ensure his company failed. The military didn’t have time to deal with a squeamish business man who never saw battle. Jerrod thought about the parting words of the General,
“Perhaps when you see your friends holding their guts, you’ll see the benefits of what I am trying to do.”
Now, as Jerrod sat in his office looking over the last batch of test results, he cringed. The government would send him yet another thinly veiled threat, and he would respond with something about having better results next time. He would be lying of course, but they didn’t know that, yet.
***
Spencer Logan grabbed his coat and went to the front door. He kissed his wife Jen on the forehead, then leaned down to kiss his baby girl Lisa. Lastly he knelt down in front of his three-year-old Mike.
“Ready to protect the family while I’m gone?” Spence put a serious look on his face.
“Yes, sir, daddy sir.” Mike lifted his hand to salute, and in an effort to make a serious face ended up with a scrunched up look.
Spence had to laugh. “Good, I’ll be back later to take over.”
He stood up and ran out the door. As usual he would have to race to work. He couldn’t afford to be late again, they would fire him, and the place he worked had a unique definition of the word fire. They actually preferred the word ‘terminate’ for obvious reasons.
“Spence, honey, can you grab some milk on your way home tonight?” Jen waved at him to get his attention.
Spence debated just getting in the car, ignoring her. He hated stopping on the way home. After he worked a twelve hour shift dealing with unstable viruses, man-made pathogens, and animal test subjects, all he wanted to do was go home and check on the safety of his family. Looking through the window at Jen, he couldn’t resist her smile. He nodded in agreement then pulled out of the driveway.
On the drive to work Spence thought about the lack of developments in his project. He and his team had been working on a serum for the government. They wanted to create a super-soldier, a man or woman who didn’t need to worry about injury, not necessarily immortal, but close enough to it.
Spence kept running into the same problem. When the serum reached animal testing stages the first time, they died within moments of the injection. If death were the only issue, Spence might have slept at some point during the last few months. Instead, his head had been loaded full of images of the animals when they came back to life.
They were different from before. Their eyes were red in color, and they continued to decompose unless fed meat. Though, the meat just seemed to slow the rate of decomposition. Spence’s team had tried variations on diet, but the re-animated animals only wanted meat, the fresher the better. Eventually, they were incinerated when Spence learned everything he could from them.
Spence realized the blood samples of the re-animated test subjects held only dead cells. Nothing about them was alive, not their heart, lungs, or blood. The only organ to show minimal activity was the brain, but it only lasted a few seconds. For the second batch, Spence altered the amount of immuno-suppressors thinking it would solve the problem.
When the test subjects were injected with this version they didn’t start to die until the twelve hour mark. Spence watched in horror as they had seizures, choked to death on their own vomit, or simply fell over dead. He waited over two hours to see if they would re-animate, but nothing happened. He called in the disposal unit which took the bodies down to the incinerator. There they began to re-animate. Eating one another and attacking one another. Spence learned what he could from the video footage and bloody remains. The guards had no choice but to protect themselves from the crazed creatures.
Spence knew part of the process would be death, the only way for the body to alter the DNA without having the subject suffer incredible pain. After the alteration completed, the organism would re-animate stronger and better, though things hadn’t been working out so far. With the third batch of the serum Spence increased the levels of plasma, and a special mix to accelerate red blood cell growth.
The test subjects were injected and after twenty-four hours were still alive. Spence monitored them carefully, terrified one would escape, or one of his team or himself might be bitten while they gathered blood and tissue samples. The ramifications of which he could only assume would be bad.
At the forty-two hour mark the animals began to twitch and screech in pain. Spence watched as his project fell over dead once again. Re-animation time quicker this time, under ten minutes. However, what they saw just beyond the observation window, unlike anything they had ever seen before.
The animals were attacking and eating one another, but weren’t dying. Spence watched in amazement as each animal suffered a mortal wound only to rise up and attack another. The sight gruesome at best, gave him hope he was on the right track. All he had to do now was find a way to stop the primal instincts, and regenerate the wounds they received.
When the animals began to beat against the door and window Spence called in the clean-up unit to take care of them. Each animal had been chained to a spot on the floor providing enough room for the men to enter and put the poor creatures out of their misery. This time however the usual humane methods didn’t work. The dart gun to put them to sleep had no effect, nor did the gas. They discovered the only way to kill them was to stop all brain function.
When word got out, the government threatened to pull their funding, claiming they were not going to waste tax payer dollars killing animals which came back to life as carnivorous monsters.
Spence got called into his boss’s office when the announcement came down. He remembered as if it were yesterday.
***
Spence sat in the ornate waiting room for his appointment with Mister Howlins. He had been working here for ten years on small projects, all of which had been successful. This would be the first time he met his boss under less than prime circumstances.
The phone on the secretary’s desk beeped, she tapped a switch and spoke into the earpiece she wore.
“Yes, sir, I’ll send him right in.”
“Doctor Logan, he’ll see you now.”
Spence took a deep breath, straightened his tie and walked over to the door. A nearby sensor caused the door to open slowly, exposing the vast office of his boss a few inches at a time.
“Spencer, sit down. I know you’ve heard by now we’re going to lose this contract unless you have a breakthrough. None of this re-animated monkey crap.”
Spencer looked at his boss, Jerrod Howlins, in his fifties, fit, very wealthy, and at the moment very unhappy. He wore a tailored grey suit, and played with his goatee as he spoke.
“Mister Howlins, I understand, but the serum isn’t ready for human trials. You said it yourself, all we have is re-animated monkeys eating each other. The same thing would likely happen to humans, maybe worse.”
Spence watched as his boss got up from his desk and walked to the window.
“Spencer, I built this company from the ground up. Fact is, this recession is killing me. If we don’t follow through on this contract I’ll be bankrupt in four months.”
Spence stood still, knowing what would happen next, his boss would make a threat of some kind, thinking it would make Spence come up with a miracle at the eleventh hour.
“Mister Howlins, there’s nothing I can do.”
He watched his boss turn around, a flash of anger in his eyes. “I didn’t hire you to hear you say you can’t do something. I hired you because you were the top of your class in bio-engineering, and came highly recommended. You have three months to get the serum working, or you’ll get yourtermination papers.”
“Yes, sir.” Spence swallowed audibly.
“Now, get the hell out of my office and start putting your genius brain to work.”
Spence stood up and nearly ran out of the office. A part of him wanted to go home and pack up his family. Change their names and never look back, though he knew his boss or the government would find him eventually.
***
That had been two and a half months ago, and Spence had tested eighteen variations of the serum since then, with the resulting death of one hundred and eighty seven test subjects. Though the last batch of subjects had lived almost forty-eight hours before they died, then re-animated into flesh eating monsters.
Spence pulled into the parking lot and showed his identification to the guard on duty. Then followed the painted lines until he got to the parking garage where he punched in his personal code. Grabbing his laptop and briefcase, he exited the car and went to the elevator.
Here, he had to pass a retinal scan, once inside the elevator, he placed his finger on a small pad which took a DNA sample as well as matching his fingerprint. The elevator began to move, opening a minute later to reveal his lab. The security here top notch, the military had made sure of it. Spence wondered if they wanted to keep the wrong people out, or the right people in.
The fact the military ran the place motivated Spence to work his ass off. On a project like this, termination papers meant you had a car accident on the way home, or perhaps a heart attack, no matter what, the threat crystal clear.
He sat at his desk with a sigh. Looking over the latest results he could see three out of four specimens from the batch injected yesterday were still alive. He pressed a button for a clean-up tech to remove the deceased animal. Spence hated when they re-animated, and tried to avoid it at all costs.
