ammo.
“Dr. Covington, put this on. That suit is disgusting.” Selena tossed him some of the gear from the pile and he gladly pulled the nasty item off his body. Underneath, his pants, shoes, and shirt were in good condition. He pulled on a dark sweatshirt with pockets on it, as well as a bulletproof vest, not that he needed it. He wondered why she gave him one. When her gaze was focused elsewhere, he pulled out the things he stashed in the pockets of his suit and shoved them into the side compartments of the pants he wore.
“You should get rid of the backpack too. It’s covered in…well in people bits,” Selena said.
Frank nodded and dumped the contents into a plastic bag from underneath the sink. He wondered at her casual tone so soon after gunfire, but instinct told him to stay calm.
“Are they in? Is Frank taking care of it? Do we have a plan?” Arthur asked in a rush of words, calm wasn’t his strong suit.
“Don’t worry about any of that. Frank has a way out, and he’s working on it now. He asked us to get the supplies then go to the garage.” Selena grabbed him and tried to pull.
“But the shots, I heard--”
“You worry too much, trust me.”
Something didn’t feel right to Arthur, so he resisted her continued attempts to move him. Backing away from her, he glanced toward the living room for Smith. “Where’s Smith?” Selena refused to answer.
“Smith, can you hear me?” Arthur yelled. No answer.
He backed into the room where he last saw her and looked around. A small pool of blood was forming in front of the couch. He went over and found Smith’s corpse with her neck slit. Selena moved toward him with a sad smile.
“I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this, Dr. Covington.”
“Come to what? You’re the traitor? Where’s Frank?”
As if on cue, Frank walked out of the room to Arthur’s delight, though it was short lived when he realized his friend was contaminated – a zombie. His mask was shattered and hanging off in tatters. A hole in the side of his cheek where he must have tried to take his own life – the shot he heard.
Arthur wanted to scream, but fled to the garage instead, not realizing he flew right into Selena’s trap. She was close on his heels and pulled out an M4. She hit the button and Arthur watched as the door opened. “Hand me your gun and make sure you don’t drop the bag. Get in the truck closest to us, Doctor.”
“Are you nuts? I’m not going without my gun,” Arthur insisted.
“Give me the damn gun, I’ll cover you.” Selena fired at one of the zombies and the body fell to the ground causing another one to trip.
Arthur did as told, while she took out any zombie near him. He saw a black bag stowed in the foot well by the passenger side seat. He reached over as she made her way to the truck. When he peered inside, he saw a collection of samples. He watched as she slithered into the car and tossed him the keys.
“We’re going to take a ride to meet my boss. I’m sure you’ll like him, seeing as how he went to all this effort just for you,” she said.
“I don’t buy it, where did you get that bag from?” Arthur used his chin to indicate the bag at her feet.
Selena looked at it with surprise, and then smiled when she saw the contents. “Wonderful, we thought we’d have to rely on the small amount you stole. This will make my boss very happy.”
“You’re not the least bit suspicious of them sitting right there for you?” Arthur asked incredulously.
“No, several people were sent in to get the rocks and retrieve you. Someone came out and well… they died, or whatever.” She motioned to the zombies collecting around the car.
Arthur looked at them. A woman with an apron ambled around with a bone in her mouth. A man in blood soaked overalls sat on the ground eating the liver of a masked guard. The world had gone to hell and he was supposed to believe what this woman said to him? She was out for herself, just like everyone else he’d met today.
Arthur laughed at her, “You’ve got to be kidding. I could have died in the explosion, been eaten by one of the zombies, killed on the Level 8 debacle. Your boss had no intentions when it came to me.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You were always with one of us. In the lab someone pulled you out of the way. You always had protection with Smith around, and we knew about your history with weaponry. You’re right about Level 8 though. We’ll investigate that thoroughly to find out who was behind it and act accordingly.”
Arthur started the car and flipped through the news stations to see if there was any information available. Bursts of static greeted him at every turn. A loud siren-like sound was on others and one repeated the same message.
Arthur gave up and stared in the rear-view mirror, unsure of what to do next. “Um, what’s your plan from here?”
Selena looked over her shoulder and shrugged. “Run the damn things over, I don’t care.”
Putting the vehicle into reverse, he did as told. The sound of groans mixed with the thumps and bumps of things hitting the undercarriage of the car made his stomach churn. The driveway was about a mile long and once they reached the end, the true horror of what happened hit him. The protective gate was open. The bodies of the guards working the admission booth were on the ground and a pack of zombies tearing into them. Strands of flesh and bits of stringy muscle spread out among them. Arthur imagined it as a feast fit for a dining table in hell.
As he followed Selena’s directions, Arthur found himself getting more comfortable with the term zombie. He also absorbed the extent of the outbreak. The town streets were packed with car accidents, arms and legs strewn about, along with the occasional head and torso. Not a single living person in sight. Arthur wondered how long it would take to reach a global scale.
“Damn it, I can’t get a signal.” Selena snapped her phone shut.
“Where are we heading?” Arthur asked.
“Just follow this road until I tell you to do something else. I’m in charge here.”
He didn’t need to be a genius to know that whatever Selena was planning on, wasn’t working out as she’d expected. Her backups were now zombies. The silo trashed. The roads and city were nothing but roaming corpses. Arthur thought about this new world and hoped there was something they could do about it. He saw a sign with some no name county in Indiana.
They needed to get to the CDC, give them the information he had along with the samples, so they could start working on a cure. With Selena in charge, that was unlikely to occur.
“Why did you leave the others alive? That was beyond cruel,” Arthur said to get her talking, and to get his focus off the death around them.
“What do you care, both of them had orders to kill you or bring you in. No matter what way you look at it, I’m the one who actually had your best interest at heart. The minute Sunset Inc. realized there was an outbreak, you became collateral damage,” Selena explained.
“I still don’t see why you couldn’t have been the least bit kind. After all, Frank did save your life,” Arthur argued.
Selena snickered, “Are you kidding me? I was doing fine on my own until he showed up. The guy was an idiot.”
“He cared about you.”
“That was his mistake. Now shut up and drive.”
Arthur let the wheels in his mind continue to work for the next few minutes. When they reached a turn off for an airport, Selena told he to take it. After another five minutes, they pulled up to an airstrip. The place appeared abandoned, zombies in flight suits roamed around.
“Go to the hangar over there, number seven,” Selena said.
Arthur obeyed, hiding his surprise when the doors opened and several armed men came out. They pulled him and Selena out of the car roughly.
“Are you infected? Have you been bitten or otherwise in contact with them?” A guard asked.
Arthur shook his head, as did Selena. A man in an impeccable grey suit came out and eyed them.
“As usual, Selena, your work is above all others. Dr. Covington, a pleasure to meet you. I think you’ll enjoy the new lab we have set up for you as we work together to determine what is in those rocks.”
