Degeneration (3 page)

The crowd in the elevator let out their last blood curdling cries as they danced to the tune of the M16
s.

“Hold fire,” Cpl. Andrews said, “check your targets.”

The white-suits stopped firing and reloaded.

A bloody cluster of bullet-riddled bodies lay motionless
in
the middle of the elevator.
Gus never
managed to even clear the pistol out of his
holster.

The white-suits stared in horror at their work as they breathed
heavily through their respirators
, adrenaline pumping through their system.

Lloyd’s facemask fogged
and his hands
trembled. The duffle
weighed down his shoulder and felt like i
t was growing heavier by the second. He didn’t turn to look
at the elevat
or massacre
. Behind h
im, he
heard double-shots being administered to the corpses
, exactly as ordered
. The sound alo
ne was almost too much for him to handle. Those people
weren’t
enemies, but were just
unfortunate
people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“
Good job.
Alr
ight, team… move up,” Cpl. Andrews
finally said.

The six white-suits
advanced
towards the laboratory doors, kicking
open of
fice doors to check and clear rooms as they made their descent down the hall
.

Lloyd kicked open
a door that was labeled ‘Vending’
.

Inside
of the room, a MP
was slouched against a
Pepsi
machine, holding a sub-machine gun with trembling hands. His face was pale and hi
s uniform was soaked with sweat. A
blue ‘
MP’ band was wrapped
around his
right arm. He coughed violently and almost collapsed to the floor as he attempted to raise his weapon
.

“Stop! Drop your weapon!” Lloyd ordered.

The ill MP ignored him and pointed the weapon shakily at–

Patrick stepped next to Lloyd and opened fire.

The MP flung against the Pepsi
machine
as the bullets tore through him
. He dropped the gun
and sunk to the floor
.

Patrick reloaded.

“T-thanks,” Lloyd stammered.

Patrick nodded and took position back outside in the hall.

“You need to stay focused and don’t hesitate on taking one of them down,” Cpl. Andrews said. “These people are infected and this whole area is crawling with the virus. If your suit gets punctured, or you get shot, you’re staying down here with them. This virus must reach the surface. A slight hesitation could cost all of us our lives. Do all of you understand what is at stake here?”

“Yes, sir,” the white-suited soldiers replied.

“Do
you
understand, Godson?” Cpl. Andrews asked with a sharp tone.

“Yes, sir,” Lloyd answered.

“I better not see that hesitation again from any of you,” Cpl. Andrews said, “now move up.”

The group ma
de their way to the steel laboratory
doors at the end of the hallway.

The outer-doors had the international biohazard symbol on them.

Cpl. Andrews
held up a closed fist and then twirled his
index finger in the air; the soldiers quickly stacked-
up
around the laboratory entrance.

“The outer is still sealed. Breech it,
”
Cpl. Andrews
said.

Lloyd moved to
the center of the large double-
doors and retrieved a small cutting torch out of
the duffle slung over his shoulder. He lit the torch and ran the
flame down the center of the doors
, slicing through the locking mechanisms
. Sparks fle
w and ricocheted off of the floor
as
the flame
reached the bottom.

The doors flew open
and the depressurized lab
moan
ed as it
desperately and greedily sucked in air
from the hallway.

“
Danger, laboratory integrity c
ompromised. Outer
-door breached. Pressurized containment countermeasure system f
ailure
,” the pleasant female
voice announced overhead.

The group advanced to the second set of double-doors which were jammed
open half-way
by a corpse lying on the floor. The corpse was wearing a blood-stained white hazmat-
suit and
was
pin
ched between two steel
doors.

“Pry them open,” Cpl. Andrews ordered.

Lloyd and Patrick
grab
bed hold of the doors and pried
them apa
rt. T
he doors gave a groan of dis
approval and slid open.

The group of white-suited soldiers stepped back and stared at the corpse on the floor.
The lower extremities of the corpse were badly mangled
, bit, and scratched. T
he
bloodied
protective suit
had been
torn to shreds.

“W
-w
hat the fuck happened to his legs?” Patrick
asked, voice shaking through his respirator.

The question hung in the air and nobody answer
ed.

“Compose yourself, soldier,” Cpl. Andrews said. He
pointed
his
rifle at the back of th
e corpse’s head and fired twice
.
He
pushe
d the corpse off of the doorway track
and
slid it inside the laboratory with his boot, leaving
bloody streak
s
across the floor.

The group
entered the newly opened tomb in stunned silence.

Blood was splattered a
ll over the interior of the lab and even on
portions of the ceiling. One of the fluorescent
lights had been pulled from
its housing and hung
by a
two
sparking wires
. The lighting inside the entire
lab
was dim and flickered
. Bro
ken equipment, scattered
papers
,
and
toppled equipment littered the lab
. Glass shards covered the once meticulously clean floor like tiny pebbles.

A large metallic table had been
overturned and recklessly shoved through a glas
s-door refrigeration unit.
The shelving inside the ref
rigerator
had collapsed and petri dishes and glass beakers
had spilt out into the lab
.

Blood-smeared
handprints ran along the rear wall and
the
counter, making their way toward a set of swinging steel double d
oors in the corner of the room.

A splash
of sparks flew from the dangling
fluorescent light and
caused the other lights in the room to flicker as they struggled to continue their duty.

Lloyd was terrified.

“Advance,” Cpl. Andrews ordered quietly, “keep your weapons in the ready position.”

The group
moved carefully and scanned
the room nervously
with their rifles as they marched in single-
line form
ation.

The lights flickered.

Glass shattered in the distance.

The soldiers fired blindly towards
the d
irection of the sound and littered the floor with spent shells.

“Hold
fire! Check your target!” Cpl. Andrews
yelled.

The soldiers sto
pped firing and breathed frantically through their respirators.

“I don’t ha
ve a visual,” one of the white-suits said. He tried to sound calm but failed
horribly.

“No target,” another soldier said.

The light fixture dangling
from the ceiling
threw another shower of sparks
and the
other
ligh
ts flickered weakly in response
.

“Ad
vance,” Cpl. Andrews ordered shakily.

The group took four steps
when the
double-doors quickly slid shut behind them.

The white-suits spun around
and
blindly
opened fire
towards the doors
,
sending shells
jittering at their feet
again
.

They stopped
firing when they realized
that
they were firing at
nothing but
two steel doors
. The doors were stenciled with
‘ALL PERSONAL MUST DECONTAMINATE’
and had
a bloody handprint smeared down the Department of Defense seal in the center.

“
Obstruction cleare
d from inner-door. Danger, a critical sally
port failure
is still being detected. Biological containment has been compromised. Quarantine protocols are in effect
,” the ever pleasant female voice announced from the
ceiling
speakers.

“Advance,” Cpl. Andrews muttered. “Damnit, stay calm and let’s clear out the rear rooms of the lab.”

The white-suits turned towards the
doors in the corner
of the lab
, weapons ready. They
made their way across the lab as the glass shards crackled under their boots. The dangling light fixture sparked again.

The l
ights flickered weakly and began to strobe.

“Steady!” Cpl. Andrews yelled. “Stay calm, Damnit, stay calm!”

The swinging
doors in the corner
of the lab
flung open.

All six
soldiers
startled
as Dr. Raymond s
tumbled into the room
wearing a bloodied white-suit
with no facemask and no respirator. His lip
s were fastened in a scowl, showing his blood-stained teeth. Dry
blood and
chunks of gore covered his chest and was smeared across his face
. Multiple lacerations
had
disfigured the left side of his fac
e and his left ear was missing.

Dr. Raymond
let out a
feral
snarl a
nd started sprinting towards the soldiers.

“Fuck! Contact! Take him down!
”
Cpl. Andrews
screamed
.

The hanging fluorescent light threw
one last
pathe
tic shower of sparks and all of the overhead lights flickered out
.

Darkness
swallowed the entire laboratory.

All
six
soldiers
fired wildly into the dark
, towards the direction of Dr. Raymond
.
Shells jittered at their
feet and the
dark room lit in an orange strobe from the
M16’s mu
zzle-flash. The gun
smoke completely clouded the
orange
strobe cast
from the
rif
les, reducing their–

“Hold fire! Hold fire! Check
for
a
target!”
Cpl. Andrews shouted.

Multiple empty
clip
s fell
aga
inst the floor and the soldiers
breathed frantically.

“Did we get him
?” on
e of the white-suited soldiers shakily asked.

“
Shh!
” hissed two other soldiers.

A
shard of glass
crunched under a boot
.

The soldiers aimlessly pointed their M16s in the dark, towards the noise.