Bitten (22 page)

“These are trying times, but we must never give up hope,” Linda said in a
consoling voice. “Just know that you’re never alone. We have each other. As long as there is a beating heart in our bodies we shall have a bond more sacred than anything. After all, it’s was separates us from them.”

“Them?” Rachael inquired.

“The living dead.”

“
Living dead
seems like the biggest oxymoron of all time.”

“Maybe,” Linda chuckled. She got up and moved toward the window to share the view. “But whatever they are
… they used to be us.”

Rachael turned to look at Linda who had come up beside her. Linda grew silent and looked out of the window down at the iridescent green pool. She reached down and found the cross around her neck and began to twiddle it between her fingers.

“Do you think there is a cure?”

“I pray to God there is.”

Rachael snorted, although she hadn’t intended to. But with her recent experience with the cult of Perry Campbell, she was a little burnt out on all the God business.

“I take it you’re not a person of faith then?” Linda asked.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Do you mind if I ask why?”

“If you value your faith Ms. Sheridan, you won’t want me to answer that question.”

Linda smiled warmly and put
her hand on Rachael’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll be praying for you anyway.”

Rachael wanted to smile back, but for some reason she just couldn’t manage it. It was better to let
her cling to her faith. At least that way she could find comfort in the belief that somewhere, somehow, this terrible nightmare would end for the better. But Rachael had no such expectations. Everywhere she went hope crumbled to ash.

“Do you mind if I ask what it is you guys do down here, exactly?” Rachael inquired. She felt it best to shift the topic of conversation. Maybe
she could pry some answers out of Linda.

“Well, most of what we do is classified. Science stuff
generally.”

Rachael looked at Linda with an expression of amusement. She hated it when people were deliberately vague. Not satisfied with the fuzzy answer, Rachael cocked her head a
nd gave Linda an exacting look. “What kind of science?”

“Various kinds. Most of it was the work of Dr. Hemingway.
You’ll understand that I can’t really go into any details seeing as it’s all classified.”

“I guess it must be some pretty seedy stuff if you can’t mention anything about it.”

“Well, I can’t mention that either I’m afraid,” Linda laughed. She shot Rachael a wink and then tucked her crucifix back in-between her buxom breasts.

Rachael had the sneaking suspicions that whatever Dr. Hemingway had going on down here, it had something to do with
this plague. Perhaps there were a few skeletons left rattling in Hemingway’s closet yet.

Jesse Zanato thought it would be funny to swipe
“Bill Nye the Science Guy” Reinhart’s security pass. After being cock-blocked by every male he had come into contact with, he’d given up trying to get back into Hurley’s pants. She had written him off for good. The other women seemed to actively despise him too. So instead of being trapped, bored to death in a room with the scary tattooed—albeit horribly weepy—biker dude, he was now using the key to enter into secured locations and snoop around.

Zanato had
been snooping around for over an hour now, but everywhere he went it was just more white halls with doors to labs. All of them empty. The equipment was there, but nobody was working on anything. It was creepy.

Security was surprisingly minimal within the base, but he supposed that was because it was a top-secret facility. Since nobody even knew of its existence, until today that is, there really wouldn’t be any need for additional layers of security. But if there was one thing Zanato knew, it was he knew when he was lost.

Flashes of déjà vu raced through Zanato’s mind as he recalled walking down that exact same corridor moments earlier. Or was it that hall over there? He turned and inspected the other passage ways which branched off from a T-junction. It looked like the exact same T-junction to him.

“Fuck it,” he said to himself, and went down the corridor. Coming to the end there was a single door. This was new. The last T-junctions only led to more halls and more T-junctions. This one had a door. Which was comforting since a door meant a room, and a room usually meant people. He walked up to the door but there was no handle. In only had a digital-lock panel with a slot for a keycard. He swiped Mitch’s card and the light on keypad flicked to orange. Then an electronic voice, which soun
ded like Apple’s Siri, came on. “*Please enter voice code.*”

Zanato
thought for a moment, then jokingly said, “Open Sesame.”

“
*Inputted*” the computer voice affirmed. “*Secondary voice command confirmation required.*”

Zanato scratched his head for a mo
ment. But nothing came to mind. “Thanks, anyway,” he said.

“
*Invalid command.*”

“Thank you!” Zanato said sarcastically
.

“
*Invalid command.*” the voice said again.

Taking a deep breath, Zanato thought of something to say, anything, wh
ich might be a secret password, and decided to try it just for shits and giggles. “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain,” he quipped.

“*Voice recognition unclear
. Please repeat.*”

“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”

“*Invalid command.*”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zanato said, but before he could get out another phrase the computer voice repeated itself. “Hey, that wasn’t…” Zanato sighed. “Great! Now I’m arguing with a
retarded machine.”

“
*Invalid command*” the computer voice droned on, but none of Zanato’s guesses worked. Zanato was too stubborn to give up now though. Not after he’d come this far. He’d found a frickin’ door! As long as there wasn’t any kind of limit of attempts he could try, like his stupid email which always locked him out after three failed tries, then he would keep on battling wits with the infernal AI. He may not be the smartest man, but Zanato knew one thing, he was certainly smarter than this stupid computerized cunt.

A few minutes later Zanato was starting to fear the computer was actually brighter than he was. Without a prayer in the world, he just blurted out the first random thing that came to mind.
“Alpha Blue,” Zanato said, knowing it was a long shot.

“*Input accepted
. Welcome Mr. Mitchell Reinhart,*” chirped the feminine computer voice.

“What the hell?” Zanato said to himself, in complete disbelief. What are the odds of guessing a random password let alone two random passwords
in a row? Proud that he had outsmarted the stupid bitch’s AI, he entered the room.

A red dome light flashed on the wall
in the hall until he was securely inside. Then the door automatically clamped shut behind him and he heard the air pressure change as air was sucked out of the room from the pressurization.

Zanato shrugged and tried to continue on, but his shoelace had gotten caught in the door. He tugged his foot, but it was securely snagged, so he yanked
hard and his shoelace tore off.

Continuing down the hall, he came to another door
, with three yellow caution stripes painted on it, which automatically opened for him. He entered into a large white room lit by massive ceiling lights. The glare bounced off the white walls and practically blinded him.

Upon giving his eyes time to adjust to the brightness, he looked over at the back wall which had a series of suspicious looking doors lining it. Six in all. They looked a lot l
ike the heavy steel doors to a meat locker. Each door had a little rectangular window slat in the center of it. Presumably for checking on whatever it was that was being stored inside. The question was what was in there?

Walking up to one of the small windows Zanato peaked inside. It looked like a regular old prison cell, except there was no place to sit. It was completely bare. Empty. He moved onto the next one. He peered into the white room. Still nothing. Just an empty room. What on earth could they be storing in here, he wondered. Staring into the small window, teeth suddenly appeared from
out of nowhere and snapped at him like a snapping turtle.

“Holy shit!” Zanato screamed as he
reeled back from the window. Slowly he heard the other cells stir with the sound of moans. Tugging at his hair, Zanato talked nervously to himself. “Who the hell keeps zombies in their basement? I mean, seriously, this is some fucked-up crazy person shit.”

Soon all the windows were filled with creepy white eyes staring at him. Hungry teeth pressed up against the small plate glass windows and clacked viciously, as if they were trying to eat through the walls to get to him. Panic flooded
Zanato’s mind, and all he could think of to do is run. He slammed into the door and banged on it to open, but it would not budge.

“
*Enter voice command code,*” the computer chirped with a cheery disposition.

“Su
percalifragi-fuck you!” Zanato screamed. “Just open the fuck up and let me the fuck out of here.”

“*Invalid…*”

“Open sesame,” Zanato blurted before the computer has finished warning him.

“*
Inputted. Please enter secondary voice code.*”

Zanato’s mind went blank. “Shit, no, no, no—”

“Invalid command,” the voice relayed.

Zanato had run out of words. Slowly turning around, Zanato looked for other exits, but there weren’t any. Just the one door
to this terrible white room. Across from him, on the other hand, were six doors full of white creepy eyes, all of them eying him like he was their next meal.

Leaning with his back up against the door, Zanato slid down and sat on the floor. Wrapping his arms around his
knees, he kept his eyes locked onto the cell doors—fearing they might pop open at any given moment. His heart pounded like a jackhammer in his chest and his mind burst with torrents of dread. In a quiet voice, devoid of any remaining optimism, he bitterly said, “Fuck me.”

JAGGED VEINS COBWEBBED OUT OF the fractured glass, giving the broken mirror the appearance of a crooked spider’s web. Jennifer stood looking at her distorted image in each serrated pane of glass. Every slice contained a version of herself gazing back at her, as if each individual shard represented a different persona of her shattered psyche. He shouldn’t have used those words. He shouldn’t have called her a slut. Her mind flashed back to moments earlier.

Levi stared into
Jen’s ice-blue eyes as she bounced up and down on top of him. Her breasts rebounded with each thrust of his hips as she bounced up and then crashed down onto him. She ran her fingers through her hair and down her body, squeezing her own breasts and letting out a sultry sigh. Levi reached up, grabbed her hair, and playfully said, “Slut, you look like your mother.” Then he kissed her. But something wasn’t right. She stopped kissing him back.

After a moment he let go and looked at her with a completely oblivious look. She scowled at him with eyes like daggers. All trace of emotion had vanished from her face.

“What did you just say?” Her words were so cold that they Levi felt their sting, as if they were as sharp as icicles. She got off of him and walked heatedly to the bathroom. Levi sat up in bed feeling rejected.

“Ah, come on. Don’t be like that. I was only kidding.”

Jennifer didn’t say anything. She simply slammed the bathroom door shut and twisted the lock. She turned around and looked at her sweaty naked body in the mirror. Her reflection stared back at her with eyes of blue flame. Her intense gaze flickered in the mirror before her, full of rage, full of hate for the wickedness of man.

Looking over at the shower she
jumped in fright when she suddenly saw a little girl standing there. She was no more than eight or nine years old. The child held an old dirty stuffed rabbit in her tiny hands. Her blonde hair was done up in pig tails, with blue hair ties that matched her crystal clear blue eyes.

“Who are you?” Jennifer asked.

The girl flickered like a digital visitant and then was suddenly standing before Hurley, looking up at her with those piercing blue eyes. “The bad man is back. Where’s mommy? I want mommy. Please don’t let the bad man hurt me. You have to stop him. Please.”

Suddenly the girl spun around and looked at the shower as if someone, or something, was chasing her through the walls.

“What is it?” asked Hurley.

“It’s coming.”

“What is?”

“I have to go,” the girl said. Then she flickered
, like a digital specter, and before Hurley could even blink the girl was gone.

Slowly, Jennifer felt the walls of her psyche crumbling away, and what was behind them was too hideous for words.
It was pure rage and hate personified. It was a fire-eyed golem with eyes of blue flame that matched hers. Let him out, and he would make her impregnable, but first she had to free it from its glass cage.

Jennifer screamed and punched her fist into the mirror. It fractured where her knuckles had impacted it. She hit it again, and again, and screamed some more. Her knuckles dripped
with blood but she didn’t care.

Looking into the shattered mirror
, Jen watched the golem’s monstrous form climb up to the mirror from the other side. It was as if she were peering through a looking glass and looking into another dimension. With arms wide open she said, “Yes, my pet. Come to me!”

The golem was free.

The bad man used to say, “You look just like your mother, slut. You’re just a no-good whore just like she is.”

“Yes.”

“Then what did he do?”

“He’d beat me until I passed out. Sometimes I’d wake up and he’d still be hitting me
… or worse.”

“Go on.
”

“Sometimes he was inside of me. Doing
terrible things. Despicable things.”

“And that
’s why you summoned me.”

“Yes.”

“The bad man is back.”

“Yes…” Hurley replied, her voice tearing into a sob.

“Don’t cry, my precious. I’m here now. I’ll look after you. Just like old times.”

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.
Jen jumped.

“Come out of there, Jen. I didn’t mean anything by it. I thought it would be, well, you know
… sort of kinky. Well, maybe it wasn’t the best choice of words. Lesson learned. Please, come back out. We can try again. I can do better. I will be better, for you, I promise.”

“The bad man is here. You have to stop the bad man. He’s going to hurt us.”

Jennifer looked over at the bag which sat on the back of the toilet. She reached in and fished out the long knife she had swiped from Ulysses Noble. He hadn’t seemed to notice it was missing, or else, didn’t care. She admired its hard phallic beauty. It was as hard and vicious as her golem. She smiled.

“You have to stop the bad man,” her reflection whispered. It was her doppelganger
now, warning her. “Stop him before it’s too late.”

Reaching down she unlatched the lock and slowly twisted the doorknob. The splintered reflection of herself in the mirror smirked and raised the blade high.

Josh rolled over, and his sheets slid off the bed and onto the floor. He didn’t care to retrieve them. He was too busy admiring Lindsey’s figure. He studied the soft rises and contours of her feminine form as she slept. It was only his second time making love. Lindsey was like an angel. What she provided him was like a much needed balm for his lonely soul.

Just then he heard a faint tapping at the door. Sliding out of bed, he wrapped a sheet around himself and tiptoed to the door. Opening it a crack, he saw a blonde woman with glittering blue eyes, grasping her
bare breasts and covering her crotch with her other hand. She was stark naked. Her eyes lit up when she saw him. “Please, you have to let me in.”

Panic caught in his chest, thinking she might have just been raped, so he immediately opened the
door and let her into the room.

The blonde lady
looked over at Lindsey curled up in bed and smiled a licentious grin. Turning back to face Josh her sparkling blue eyes filled with water as she spoke. Desperation filled her voice. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother you,” she whispered, “but I had to get out of there before he woke up. You know, one of those huge mistakes.”

“Why my room? A
nd where are your clothes?”

“Ah, yes,” she said, blushing slightly. “I don’t exactly know how this happened, but my clothes seem to have been misplaced. He probably hid them just so I wouldn’t leave.”

“Yet here you are,” Josh said half amused.

She smiled at him warmly.
“Don’t worry,” she said looking back at the naked girl sleeping in the bed. “I won’t be a bother. All I require is a large t-shirt and a place to crash for the evening.”

Josh stepped into her line of sight and waited for her to reinitiate eye contact with him. She seemed
a little bit distracted for some reason.

“Who are you again?”

“Sorry, I totally forgot to introduce myself.” Holding out her hand, which revealed her amazing breasts, she said, “I’m Jennifer. Jennifer Hurley. Feel free to just call me Jen.”

Josh’s eyes probed her chest, her face, then her chest again. Jennifer smiled as she saw the tent he was pitching under his sheet. “I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here,” Josh said
firmly.

Jennifer raised her voice, “But there’s nowhere else
I can go. Believe me, I tried every door and nobody but you answered.”

“I’m not surprised,” Josh quipped.
Their chatter had aroused Lindsey who now looked up at Josh standing wrapped in a sheet taut from the massive erection threatening to break through. But all that seemed perfectly normal. What bothered her was the tall, naked blonde woman standing exceedingly close to him—practically pressing her massive thirty-four double D’s into his gawking face.

“Who the fuck are you?” Lindsey jumped out of bed and marched over to Jennifer, not caring one iota that she was also stark naked. When Jennifer looked back at Josh, Lindsey asserted her authority and tapped Jennifer on the shoulder and said, “Hey, I asked you a question.”

“Please,” Jennifer pleaded with crocodile tears threatening to squeeze out of the corners of her eyes,” I can’t go back there. I spent my whole life trying to get away from my ex, and now he finds me here of all places. It’s unbelievable … and yet here I am, begging you, please. Just let me spend the night.”

Josh shot Lindsey a sympathetic look. Lindsey sighed, and said, “Well, it couldn’t hurt.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Jennifer said with a sigh of relief. She grabbed Josh and pulled him into her bare breasts and hugged him tight. Josh gulped. His cheeks flushing bright pink.

“I
… ah … um … you can … what I mean to say is—”

Once Hurley let go of Josh, he stood their
staring at her chest as if he were stuck in some kind of libidinous trance. Lindsey slapped him in the back of the head. Hard.

“What he means to say is that we only have the one bed.”

“Yeah, we only have one bed,” Josh answered with a disappointed sigh.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Jennifer said, “
I mean, I’m fine with it if you guys are?”

Taken aback, Lindsey looked at Jennifer with bemused eyes. “Actually, I meant, someone is going to have to sleep on the floor.”

“Are you serious?” Josh said. “We can’t make her sleep on the floor.”

“No, I meant you, genius.”

“Well…”

“Well, what?” snapped Lindsey.

“Why couldn’t we just share the bed?”

“Sure. Why not?” Hurley said cheerfully.

“What?” Lindsey squawked.

“Have you ever tried it?” Hurley asked lubriciously.

Lindsey blushed. “No, but…”

“But what?” Josh inquired, growing excited by the prospect of a three-some.

“But we’ve sort of been standing talking about it like it’s…” Lindsey looked Jennifer up and down. She was older, but damn it, she dripped pure, unchaste, sex appeal.

Lindsey had never done anything this promiscuous before, although she did make out with her
college roommate at a drinking party once. Would this be any different? Did it even matter? “Fuck it. Let’s just do this. Why not? It’s the end of the goddamn fucking world—so screw it.”

Jennifer sighed wantonly, grabbed Lindsey, and French kissed her. Watching this, Josh’s eyes grew to the size of saucers
. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he quipped with nervous anticipation.

Lindsey reeled back in surprise and, feelingly turned on, she grabbed Hurley and kissed her back. Suddenly Jennifer bit Lindsey’s bottom lip so hard that Lindsey screeched in pain and recoiled from the harrowing embrace.

Checking her lip with two fingers, Lindsey looked down to see a smattering of blood. “What the hell did you do that for?”

Hurley licked the blood off her teeth and stared at Lindsey. Josh stood their looking at one woman and then the other as they glared at one another. Josh couldn’t tell what was wrong but Jennifer’s face had turned stone cold, vacant, as if all the emotion faded from her. Her eyelids hung low as if she was nestled in the arms of Morpheus. Her blue eyes were as cold as ice now.

Lindsey waved her hand in front of Jennifer’s face. “Hey Jen, are you alright?”

Without warning Jennifer grabbed Lindsey by her hair
, jerked her back, and then slammed her into the nearby dresser. The blow knocked Lindsey unconscious and she rebounded off and then violently crashed to the floor.

Josh threw the sheet off and
rushed over to where Lindsey lay. He picked her up in his arms and cradled her, but before he could check to see if she was alright, he suddenly felt something hard slam into the back of his head. Then he collapsed onto Lindsey’s naked body.

Jennifer looked back toward the bathroom door, which was half open, and saw a partial glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. Glaring with dim-eyed contempt was the dark version of herself. Hurley looked down at the two unconscious teenag
ers lying in a heap and smiled. “Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished; for never was a story of more woe … than that of Juliet and
her
Romeo.”