Genesis (10 page)
The black Humvee rolled up the gravel driveway of the
farm and parked several feet in front of William, blinding him with brilliant
white light.
William dropped his line of sight down,
trying to preserve what little night vision he had remaining. Out of the corner
of his eye, he could see U.S. Government plates on the vehicle.
The lights dimmed on the Humvee, blanketing
the area in darkness once more.
It was an interesting decision from a
tactical point of view, and indicated to William that their intentions were not
hostile. He could see two people inside the vehicle. Both looked like soldiers.
But barely. The driver looked so young that he must have just gotten out of
high school.
National Guard, William presumed.
The driver’s side window rolled slowly
down, and William’s suspicions were mostly confirmed.
“Dr. Cooper? Don’t shoot. We’re here from
the United States Marshals Protective Service Division. My name is…”
William cut him off.
Might as well run with it and hope for the
best.
“I don’t give a fuck who you are. Who you
are is completely irrelevant. What are you doing here?”
“I’m terribly sorry, Dr. Cooper. There has
been a Level One Evacuation Order. We are here to transport you to a safe
facility. I have my paperwork here.” The driver extended some paperwork out the
window for William to examine.
It was working.
Get rid of them. With or without prejudice.
“Paperwork can be faked. And knowing my
name doesn’t prove whose side you’re on.” William pointed to the body of Che. “As
you can clearly see, I have the situation under control. I do not need your
protection, and I do not know who you are. I am going nowhere with you. Now
please leave.” The paperwork was pulled back inside the vehicle, and the window
rolled back up.
William stood there, holding his ground,
and wondering what the kid was doing inside with Cooper. Not like it mattered. There
weren’t many places in the house that they could hide.
Both doors of the vehicle opened
simultaneously, and with tactical precision and swiftness, William found
himself quickly confronted by both of the U.S. Marshals, weapons not fully on
him, but in ready position.
“Dr. Cooper, I’m sorry, but we have orders
to deliver you to the Command Center. You’re coming with us, whether you like
it or not. Restraints are optional. We have about five minutes. Do you need
anything from your house? Time is critical,” the closest Marshall asked,
extending the evacuation paperwork for William to see.
William grabbed the paperwork from his hand
and scanned it. They were going to take him to the Central Command Center
inside Cheyenne Mountain. There was no way he could go there. Someone would
surely know what Dr. Cooper looked like there. But, it looked like they had one
more pickup to make.
Code name Genesis.
That could be interesting.
“Time is one thing you don’t have to
lecture me on. I’m done here. Let’s go.” William had formulated his plan. He
would find out what he could, be helpful along the way, then kill them when an
opportune moment arouse. If he had time, he would double back and kill the boy.
William looked back at the house one last
time. He didn’t really have any other choice. The time machine would have to
wait. It was worthless without the key anyway. He started walking to the
Humvee.
“Not so fast, Sir.” The larger of the U.S.
Marshals stepped in front of William, blocking the path to the Humvee. “I need
your evacuation password.”
William stopped in his tracks. “Are you
fucking serious?”
“Protocol, Sir.”
William thought for a moment, then bluffed.
“You’re wasting valuable time. This won’t
look good in my report, Private.”
“I’m a Sergeant, Sir.”
“We’ll if you want to stay one, I suggest
getting me to the command center.”
The young Marshal was flustered and looked
to his friend for support, but found none.
What was he going to do? His orders were to
bring this guy back to the command center alive. He could possibly hold the key
to solving this whole mess. This guy was supposed to be some sort of biological
weapons genius or something.
“Sorry, Sir!” he said, as he stepped aside
and cleared a path for William to get into the Humvee.
“They’re gone.”
Christopher had been quietly listening to
the events unfold in front of the house. He looked out carefully through the
window and could see three men getting into a Humvee. William was one of them. He
was getting away. “I’m sorry, Grandpa. We improvised a bit. Che wanted to make
some changes to the plan.”
“You weren’t supposed to make any changes
to the plan. You were supposed to go straight to the mineshaft.” Cooper could
barely talk, the blood slowly filling his lungs making each breath more painful
than the last. “You need to go. Now!”
But Christopher just stood there. He could
not bring himself to leave his grandfather’s side.
The sound of breaking glass came from the
kitchen.
Christopher took a few steps and positioned
himself so that he could see through the foyer door and into the kitchen. The
undead had broken through the window on the kitchen porch.
“They’ve compromised the porch.”
Cooper nodded. “Get to the mine.”
Christopher understood that the time to
leave had come. He spun around and looked out the front door window.
A large number of undead had gathered
outside and had begun to feed on the remains of Che. Christopher teared up, and
could not turn back to face his grandfather.
From the kitchen, the sounds of breaking
wood and glass. Plus the unmistakable sounds of the Runners.
Shit.
Runners.
Runners were the most dangerous. They were
technically the newly infected and newly turned, they were very enraged. Fast,
both day and night.
Christopher looked out the front door
window again. Runners and walkers. Lots of them. He was not confident he could
make it out the front with only his K-bar as a weapon.
Cooper seemed to know exactly what he was
thinking.
“In the attic.”
Christopher understood.
“What happens to you?”
It was something Cooper did not want to
think about. He was duct-taped to a wheelchair, missing an ear, with a hole in
his lung, and from the sounds of things breaking in the kitchen, at least a
handful of those things were already in the house.
It didn’t take a time traveler to know the
future this time.
Go with the truth.
“I slow them down long enough for you to
make it.”
“I love you, Grandpa.”
“I know.”
Christopher began running up the stairs and
was almost to the landing when the first of the runners exploded into the foyer
and began tearing its teeth into Cooper’s exposed neck.
Cooper was silent, but the sound of flesh
being torn from his body rang in Christopher’s ears as he ran down the hallway,
turning the tight corner and then slamming the attic door shut behind him.
Christopher locked the door.
It would not hold them for long, but it
would hold them long enough.
Christopher ran to the top of the stairs.
Weapons.
There had to be something he could use up
here.
And there it was.
Technically it wasn’t a weapon, but rather
a tool. But like his Grandfather had told him many times before, most any tool
can be a weapon if you look at it right. And given the situation, tight
quarters, large horde of undead, lone defender, this tool was the perfect
choice.
Sitting on top of his grandfather’s old
footlocker from the Coast Guard was Chipper, his grandfather’s trusty old
chainsaw.
Taped to it was a note.
This was the plan all along. Your
actions changed nothing. Remember, you cannot change the past. Live for the
present. Fight for the future. And this time, when you go outside, put on the
God damn suit.
Christopher opened the footlocker to find a
brand new chemical suit, in his exact size.
The undead had reached the attic door.
Christopher could hear them clawing and
bashing their heads and fists against the door in an effort to break through. The
door was solid and would hold, but not for long.
Christopher didn’t want to suit up, but he
felt like he should. It was his grandfather’s last request, after all. Plus,
with Chipper, there would be a lot of blood flying around, and Grandpa was
always a bit vague about whether the blood carried any of the virus pathogens
or not.
It didn’t take him long to suit up. The
chemical suits were a simple one-piece design, and even a child could figure it
out on his own if he had to.
Christopher picked up the chainsaw and
pulled out the choke.
He was sure to give the fuel bulb an extra
pump or two.
Quick pull on the rope.
The chainsaw came to life.
The sound of the chainsaw’s small engine
was deafening in the attic. Christopher revved the engine a few times then
walked carefully down the stairs.
When he reached the bottom, Christopher
used his leveraged position to kick the attic door open, then launched himself
into the tangled pile of undead, swinging his chainsaw left and right, making
quick work of the undead that were waiting for him.
Christopher made his way down the hallway,
encountering several of the undead along the way.
Each swing of the chainsaw was easier than
the last, and apart from his arms getting tired, killing those things did not
bother him at all. In fact, it was sort of fun. Fun until he reached the
landing.
From the landing, he could look down and
see a large number of them feasting on the remains of his grandfather. There
was nothing he could for him at this point, but he could at least bury the
body. He owed him that much.
Christopher started making his way down the
stairs. It was hot inside the chemical suit, and his facemask was starting to
fog up.
It happened so fast that he didn’t have
time to react.
Falling.
Falling backwards.
The ceiling of the foyer came into view. A
small water stain, funny, he had never noticed that before. He hit his back
hard on the stairs, but felt no pain.
That’s odd.
Christopher came to a rest on the stairs. There
was pain now, but different than he expected. Everything sort of tingled.
Christopher let out a whimper. He could not
feel his feet.
The chainsaw.
He had slipped on the stairs and fallen on
top of his own chainsaw. It must have severed his spinal cord.
Son of a bitch.
The front door to the house was open, and a
steady stream of those things were making their way into the foyer. It would
only be a matter of moments before they started up the stairs.
So this is how it ends.
Not with a bang but a whimper.
To be continued…
The Motion Picture Genesis screened at the 2016
Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes
You can learn more about the film at
“Don’t trust everything you see and hear. What you’re
seeing is simply a diversion to the truth. “
William Riley
May 8, 2012
Undisclosed
Location - (Classified)
