Monday, October 31, 2016

Day 31: What Now?

Group: Natalie, David, Amélia, Mike, Edward, Nicole, Josh, Matthew, Liz, Nina, Lucky, Eddie, Elise, Dominic, Mathew, Ryan, Troy, Aisha, Jeremiah, Katrina, Jake, JC
Location: BioCore Safe Zone


“They’re walking into their deaths. We need to stop them!” Elise exclaimed, but Natalie was already running forward.

“MATT!” she shouted, frantically waving her arms as she called his name, “MATT!!” It wasn’t his name that made him freeze, it was the sound of her voice. A voice he thought he’d never hear again.

Matthew glanced towards the cluster of trees. She appeared through the forest, arms outstretched and a smile on her face. Tossing Dominic his weapon, he rushed forward. They met halfway, his arms instantly enclosing her in a warm hug as she bounded into him. “I can’t believe it’s you,” he whispered against her ear before their lips met. He could feel the moisture on her cheeks as her hands slipped around his neck.


“I knew you’d find me,” she replied, feeling his tongue slide into her mouth. She whimpered as he deepened the kiss and pushed herself more into his arms.

The others walked forward. JC and Josh kept their eyes out on the perimeter for any movement while the rest of the group sorted through their weapons. Dominic handed Matthew his rifle and nodded at Natalie.


Elise, Eddie and Amélia stepped from out of the bushes. Eddie dropped their captive to the ground at his feet as David appeared beside him. His eyes moved from the large group of unfamiliar faces to Natalie and Matthew. He couldn’t help the jealous pangs that hit him full throttle in the pit of his stomach as he moved closer. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but our friend has an idea about how we can get inside.”

“Wait, were you going in there?” Matthew asked. He was unable to keep his hands off of Natalie. She smiled up at him as he playfully squeezed her side.

“We were thinking about it,” Elise replied, eyeing Natalie as she carefully chose her words. Matthew wouldn’t have liked hearing their reckless plan of entry. 


“There’s a service entry; unguarded,” David said, swallowing his feelings as he watched the couple get reacquainted. “We can use that to get inside.”

“Twenty-two,” Mathew said, carefully placing a black duffel bag to the ground in front of him. “That’s the number of explosives we have in total.”

“Not bad,” Jake replied. “That oughta do some damage.”

“Yeah well the problem with that is, we only have five detonators.”


“So what does that mean?” Nicole asked.

“It means we’re going to have to be smart about how we use them. Set the charges close together in order to run them from one trigger.”

“Wait a second, what are we talking about here?” Eddie asked.

Ryan glanced at Matthew and back to Eddie with a sigh. “It was decided our best course of action was to end the threat of these assholes. We’re going to blow up BioCore’s ‘safe zone’ and murder every last one of the sons of bitches trying to take us out.”


There was silence for a moment as everyone let Ryan’s words sink in. Dominic looked over their faces, searching for one in particular. Finally stopping on Natalie’s, she lowered her head, unable to look him in the eyes. Her mournful expression was revealing but he ignored the sense of dread squirming in his belly and asked. “Roni?” She shook her head no.

Dominic’s hands curled into fists as he thought about what she meant. He hardly felt the sharp points of his fingernails digging into his palms. Everything he had done to keep himself alive; the people he’d killed, all the running and fighting, the reason he’d done it all, was gone. It wasn’t just the sense of loss that made his eyes water. His bottom lip quivered and he turned away before he let them see his pain. Veronica was gone. Her body was rotting somewhere out there with the rest of the decaying masses. He’d never see her smiling face again.


“Guys, we’re burning daylight,” Troy said.

“He’s right,” Katrina added. “We need to come up with a plan.”

“This is all the information I was able to gather,” David said, sharing the paperwork and rough sketches he’d made of the facility. “We can get around the place using the stairs. Staff elevators require a passkey which, we don’t have. There are usually three men on each door.” Everyone looked over the information, assessing the best routes to take. It seemed doable, but Elise, Natalie and David saw firsthand what they were up against.


“Alright, we’ll move in groups of three. Liz and Mike, you hang back with Nina, Jeremiah and Aisha,” Matthew instructed. Ryan and JC worked through the weapons cache, distributing ammo and explosives. “The rest of us keep focused. It’s the only way we’re getting out of there alive. We’ll have 4 charges each. Make sure to set them in places for maximum destruction. Stay together. Let’s give BioCore a taste of their own medicine.”


The group split into sets of three, each tasking an individual with a specific job before they started for the gates. The burning, orange sun ducked behind the mountain. Darkness was their shield. Eddie pushed the bound man before them. He stumbled down a hidden flight of stairs, leading the group towards a basement. A set of concrete doors was obscured by a bush in an obvious attempt to camouflage the entrance. The man stopped just inches in front of the gate and checked the proximity of the others just over his shoulder.

Troy caught his hesitation and yelled for everyone to stop. At the same time the man launched himself forward, throwing his body into a trip wire. The doors caved in, an alarm was sounded and everyone ducked as gunshots erupted around the facility. Troy rushed down the stairs, aimed his weapon at the grinning man and fired.

The group stepped over his body as they hurried inside the building. “So much for the element of surprise,” Dominic grumbled as he, Nicole and Eddie headed right down the east corridor.

Josh, Mathew and Amélia moved along the west while Edward, JC and Ryan took the south following after Troy. Katrina, Elise and Jake headed up to the second floor and Matthew, Natalie and David moved north down the main hall. 


“Let’s move the trucks back,” Liz said, hopping behind the wheel of the pickup. Mike slid into the driver’s seat of the transport and followed her towards the end of the block. Backing up into a vacant lot, they hid the vehicles out of view of the road. “We should be good here.” She kept watch of the road and Jeremiah moved around the other side to keep an eye out. Aisha and Nina remained close to the vehicle, with Lucky by her side.

Mike began coughing. He stumbled into the side of the truck as it grew. Unable to breathe, he pulled at the collar of his shirt, loosening the fabric a little more.


“Are you ok?” Liz asked, noticing Mike’s pallid appearance. She slid her finger over the trigger guard of her gun, recognizing that she might have to use her weapon…soon. He was shivering and clutching at his abdomen. The whites of his eyes were red and irritated and there was a small speck of blood on the corner of his mouth.  

“I’m fine,” he grunted and moved to the back of the truck away from the others. Leaning against the back bumper, he slowly slid to the ground, holding his stomach tighter as blood pumped through his hands. Everything became a haze as he slowly slipped into unconsciousness.


The building felt like a freezer; probably normal temperatures considering it was a medical laboratory but for Natalie, it was unbearable. The chilly conditions served to increase the ache she felt in her kneecap. The slow in her step caused her to fall behind the others. Matthew turned with a concerned expression, watching her struggling to keep up. “You’re limping,” he said, pulling her against him.

“She hurt herself out in the woods,” David replied. He swallowed hard when Matthew looked over at him.

“You ok to keep going?” he asked, resting her weight against him.

“I’ll be fine. Let’s keep moving.” 


Dominic fired rapidly down the hall, two guards scattered around the corner. His bag was empty, and now, so was his gun. Eddie tossed him a magazine from his bag before slinging it over his shoulder and started for the door. “One more here,” Nicole said, setting her final explosive beside the tank near the wall. The opaque liquid made her skin crawl. She could only assume the cause of the discoloration. As she prepared to back away, the machine in front of her began steaming more. Curious, Nicole reached her hand out to clear the glass. “FUCK ME!” she shrieked as a woman hit the glass cylinder.

“You ok?” Dominic asked, looking over in her direction.

“Yeah. Peachy.”

“Good then let’s hurry it up,” Eddie replied. “This place is fucked.”


They had moved quickly. The primary charge was set in the electronics control center; the next the boiler room. It was where’d they’d encountered their first group of opposition. A handful of armed guards came out of nowhere, firing at them as they exited the room. Eddie had taken out two on his own but was grazed in the leg for his efforts. He now moved with a limp but managed to keep up. The third bomb was taped to the bottom of the stairs leading to the security office. Katrina’s group would have to move fast before that one was triggered.

Now the group found themselves in one of many project rooms. This one relied heavily on cold storage and vats of indistinguishable liquids and jars of preserved body parts. “Done,” Nicole announced, sticking the blasting cap into the C4. “We ready to move?”

Dominic checked the exit and signaled the coast was clear. “Let’s go.”


As they exited the room, another gunman popped up, opening fire on the fleeing group. Eddie ducked behind a large machine as Dominic and Nicole took cover near the door. “Give it up!” the man shouted towards them. “There’s no way you’re getting out of here alive.”

“He’s right,” Eddie said, blinking hard as the pain seared down his knee. “You guys need to get out of here. I’ll hold them off.”

“No way man, that’s not an option,” Dominic said. “We’re not leaving you behind.”


“You have no choice. I can’t move as fast with my leg all busted up and there’s no sense in all of us dying here,” he said, checking his magazine. “Just promise me one thing: you stick it to these sons of bitches.”

“Eddie…” Nicole whined.

“GO! NOW!” he watched as Dominic and Nicole huffed up the stairs and out of view before taking a deep breath and making his final stand.


“That’s the last one,” Katrina announced and stepped around the security booth. “We should probably get out of here now.”

“Guys, I heard shots,” Jake said, lowering his back against the wall. “I think the others may be in trouble.”

“We have to get to them!” Elise exclaimed, cutting the last wire beside her.

“No. We need to stick to the plan,” Jake said. “It won’t be easy cutting a path clear across this facility and even if we did who’s to say we make it in time? No. We’re on a schedule here. Grab your stuff and let’s clear out.”

“As much as I hate to say it,” Katrina started, shoving the last of her items into the duffel bag. “Jake’s right. We have to be out of here on time. We can’t risk moving through this place like that. We need to regroup and figure it out from there.”


Reluctantly, Elise nodded and followed the others out into the hallway. They were halfway to the exit when she noticed the light on her trigger wasn’t on. “Something’s wrong,” she said, turning the device to show the others.

“Great. The detonator’s not connected,” Jake replied. He blew out a breath and tapped his hand against his head. “Alright. You guys head out, I’ll swing back around and fix it.”

“Wait, we just talked about how crazy it would be to go running around this place and now you want to split up?” Katrina asked, looking at Jake in disbelief.

“It’s not a matter of ‘want’, Katrina. If those charges aren’t set correctly then there is a chance of something surviving this place and we agreed we wouldn’t let that happen. Someone has to fix them.”


“Fine. Then we go together. We move as a group.”

“Too risky.”

“No, what’s risky is going back alone. What if you run into more of those guards? It was hard enough getting through them when it was the three of us. How are you going to do it all by yourself?” Katrina argued.

“Skills,” Jake shrugged with a grin. “Look, there’s no point in arguing this, I’m going and you two are leaving. Katrina, if the others have finished they might have moved outside already. It’ll be easier for one of us to get in and out rather than endangering us all. I’ve got this. You and Elise get outside.”


“Jake…”

“I’ll be fine,” he smiled. “But, just in case…” Placing his hand on her back, Jake pressed Katrina into his body and planted one on her. She felt his tongue brush hers and responded to the kiss eagerly, moaning into his mouth as he tightened his grip around her waist. Tilting his head forward, Jake rested his forehead gently against hers, eyes closed and his steady exhalations tickling against her lips as he slowly pulled away. “I’ll see you out there. Now get moving.”


“Dude, hurry it up. We need to regroup,” JC said, watching Edward place his charge near the electrical outlet under the window.

“I’m moving as fast as I can. Sorry I’m not an explosives expert like some people.” Sweat glistened on his forehead and he wiped his arm across his face to keep it out of his eyes. “It’s hot. What kind of lab keeps it this hot?”

“What are you talking about? This place is freezing,” JC replied. “Just hurry up!”


“It’s done,” he said, leaning away, losing his balance as he got to his feet. Edward tossed the tools into the bag and slid it towards JC. “We should…” he shook his head to clear the cobwebs and fell against the desk beside him.

“What’s wrong with you, man?”

“Nothing. I’m fine. Just woozy. It’s too hot in here. Let’s get outside.”

“Are you guys done in there?” Troy called into the room. He and Ryan stood guard outside, watching for any resistance.


“Yeah. Heading your way,” JC replied. Edward stumbled as he tried to move, groaning as he hit his shoulder against the desk on the way down. “You are not fine.” JC said, watching as Edward struggled to get back to his feet. He writhed on the floor a moment and JC jumped back when a mouthful of blood shot out at him. Edward growled as he finally stood and JC raised his weapon without hesitation.

“Guys? You ok in there?” Ryan asked, hearing a gun go off. The door opened, but it wasn’t Edward exiting the room. It was JC with a shocked look on his face. “What happened? Where’s Edward?”

“He turned,” JC said, “And he came at me. I did what I had to do.”

“That bandage on his arm,” Troy said. “He must have been bitten, or scratched.”


“Geez, man,” Ryan paused and took a step back. “Did he get you?”

“Hell no! I didn’t let that fucker near me. I’m clear,” JC replied. “Let’s get the fuck out of…”

A gunshot erupted. Blood splattered Troy’s face as Ryan’s head split open. Instantly he and JC returned fire down the hallway at their obscured attacker. “Run!” JC shouted in desperation.

“I wonder how the others are doing,” Troy said as he and JC swiftly ran to escape.


Shots rang out beside Amélia. She ducked as screaming scientists fled around her, running for cover. She pulled from around the corner and began firing. Mat advanced while Josh held his position. He entered a door one of the fleeing scientists left open, more patients. Some were tied to beds, others were hanging from the rafters by chains. None of them appeared alive. 


Unzipping his bag, Mat set the charge. As he turned to leave, one of the bodies on the bed looked up at him. Its gaze set his heart racing. The hissing shriek it made caused him to step back a few paces and place his back to the wall. The man’s eyes were red with fury. Mathew felt that at any moment, it would break the leather binds holding him to the bed. Not wanting to waste the bullet, Mathew grabbed a scalpel from the tray near him and walked closer. Exhaling a deep breath, he swiftly drove the steel blade through the man’s eye.

A black substance shot into his face. He screamed. The unknown liquid made his skin burn and he could feel it melt the flesh around his mouth and eyes. Amélia rushed into the room at the sounds of his howl and gasped as she watched chunks of meat and muscle sink to the floor from his face. “JESUS!” she exclaimed. “What did you do?”


“Help me,” he cried as he continued pawing at his skull. “Please. Help me.” He stepped towards her. Amélia lifted her weapon and he stopped, placing his arms in front of him defensively. “No. Amélia, wait, please.”

“I’m sorry,” she said and pulled the trigger. Amélia moved to collect his weapon and quickly turned to exit the room. Her eyes fell on the empty bed and the liquid oozing from the opened container. Following the trail, she gasped seeing the slimy creature standing just a few feet in front of her. Amélia whimpered, closing her eyes as the monster moved in.


“Is everyone out?” Matthew asked, flipping the cover of his trigger.

“Jake,” Katrina said. “Has anyone seen him?” There was a resounding no from the group and she and Elise exchanged a look. “He went back to fix our charges.”

“We can give him another minute,” Matthew said, “But after that we have to detonate.” That minute was eternal agony as Elise and Katrina stared at the door, willing it to open and for Jake to come rushing through. When that didn’t happen, Matthew turned towards Katrina, his eyes conveying his sentiment. 


The group took a step back as the timer ticked down the remaining seconds. Matthew flipped the final charge and the building exploded in a brilliant blaze of orange and yellow flames. The force of the blast threw many of the group to the ground face-first. Glass shattered. Smoke and falling dust filled the air. Matthew threw himself on top of Natalie as the explosion tore through the adjacent building. Elise choked on the acrid smoke and began coughing, her ears ringing from the force of the explosion.

The echo of Nicole’s heartbeat muffled sounds with an underwater effect, as if her head had sunken to the bottom of a muddy lake. Through the auditory haze, fire roared. People screamed. Another explosion. She lifted her head a slight inch, but the pain that ricocheted through it blackened the edges of her vision.

David inhaled, and the salty, coppery taste of blood ran down the back of his throat. He touched his nose, and his hand came away wet and red. He looked beyond his hand. His eyes drifted right. The horror made him want to squeeze them closed. But he couldn’t. There were bodies everywhere. A lake of the dead and dying spread towards him across the open field. 


When it was over the group stood on the pinnacle of the destruction. The building crumbled to the ground in front of them. Fires raged on around the compound and hundreds of zombies burned in the angry flames. Their wails hauntingly hung in the air as what remained of their rotting flesh was seared from their bones.

Katrina’s heart ached with the memories of each time she stood on the brink of death. Each fear-ladened moment where she was on the run for her life. Each tear that fell from her eyes and soaked into the bloody pavement. And each loved one she lost along the way.

It had been a bloody battle. There were moments when it felt all was lost and none of them would make it out alive. But their hard-earned freedom was not without its downside. They had defeated BioCore and avenged their murdered friends. But as relieved as they were to finally be done with that company once and for all, they knew the struggle was far from over.

They had birthed new horrors with the loss of a cure. The country was still overrun by the numerous undead. Survival was both reward and consequence for having escaped the fray. They had seen, done and experienced despicable things just to make it to another day. Still, the struggle was not over. There was still much work to do. The physical wounds would heal, but the emotional damage was done.


They turned and started for the trucks. Thousands of twinkling stars lit their path in the silky black sky as they went on the hunt for a new beginning. One far away from this mess. “Wait,” Troy said, pausing just beside the tree line. “I think someone’s down there.”

“Oh my god!” Katrina gasped.


Group: Ericka & Kenneth Vanguard
Location: Vanguard Manor (Bonus: Origin Conclusion)


“Kenny?” Ericka’s voice echoed down the hallway of her multi-million dollar mansion as she tossed her keys into the tray beside the door and made her way through the home she shared with her husband and two Maltese dogs.

Met with the sound of silence, she continued further into the house, stopping at the entrance to the living room. The area was in disarray. Furniture was overturned, paintings had been ripped from the walls, glass vases were broken; their pieces scattered across the floor. “Kenny! What the hell went on here?” she shouted, appalled at the appearance of her home. 


Now on a mission to locate her good-for-nothing husband and let him have it, Ericka tore through the house, entering into the kitchen. Her eyes fell on the opened back patio door and she sighed with irritation. “You left the door opened again? I swear you’re worthl…” her words caught in her throat at the sound of scraping against the wood flooring and the sudden realization she was not alone in the room. “Kenny?”

A dreadful moan answered her. Ericka opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was a thin croak. She could only stare in abject terror at the thing standing not ten feet in front of her. Half of its face had been ripped open. The flesh hanging from its chin dripped a greenish-red liquid of what she could only assume to be a mixture of blood and oozing pus. The white of his skull was visible, and it gleamed underneath, its teeth sneered at her with a grotesque and otherworldly smile. It reached out his decaying arms, fingers quivering. Another ghastly wail escaped its mouth as it started towards her.


“Kenny?” she tried as the monster opened its jaw and lunged. She screamed and fell back, feeling its teeth tear into her arm. Wrestling away, Ericka scurried to the back wall of the room, watching as the walking corpse clambered to its feet. 

With her heart pounding fast in her chest and her legs weak with fear, Ericka grabbed hold of the item closest to her—a cast-iron skillet—and swung it at her husband’s head with all her might, crushing his skull in three blows. Blood streamed down the crack in his head, over his jaundiced, papery skin. Blood—her blood—lined his mouth, drooling over his neck and chest.


A warm ache spread through her arm to the rhythm of her pulse yet her body shook to a different beat. Hot tears formed and dripped from her eyes; the taste of bile fresh on her tongue. He had bitten her! And from what she’d learned about this outbreak, it wouldn’t be long before she became just like her husband—what was left of him. But she had no choice. She had to survive. It was him or her. And she had to live.

But her arm—what the hell was she going to do about her arm? One thing was clear: she couldn’t turn; wouldn’t turn. There had to be a way. An abrupt consciousness aroused her as she felt the disease spreading through her arm: Dr. Bell’s research. It was back at the lab. She needed to act fast.


Snatching a dish cloth from the sink, she crafted a tourniquet just below her elbow, tightening it as much as possible. Her car was just out by the street, maybe forty feet from the front door. Rushing through the hallway, she lifted her keys from the dish, trying to ignore the pain in her arm. Suddenly, an icy feeling came over her and she stopped in place.

Standing motionless for a moment, she noticed as something zipped within her peripheral vision just beyond the door. Just then, a large object collided with the front entrance. Ericka moved quickly to lock it. A yellowed face with bloodshot eyes hungering for her peered at her through the window and was soon joined by more.

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*Author’s note: This story was met with a lot of unfortunate mishaps. Even having a huge head start, I was not able to effectively execute the second part of the trilogy for the Outbreak series and I deeply apologize for that. Real life drama and in-game delays created the worst case scenario possible for me. I appreciate everyone sticking with me until the end. Thank you for reading even if the story veered tremendously off course.*

P.S. I fully intend to go back and add shots to the missed chapters.

~ Daijah

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