Outbreak (Book 2): The Mutation (41 page)

11

“We bought ourselves a little more time,
”
Butsko said. “Nice work back there, Wilder.”

“I think the next lab over is the EMP lab,
”
Wilder said. “We could always set off another blast to give us enough time to get out of here.”

“If we do that, won’t all the electrical equipment be wiped out down here?
”
asked Steele. “The elevator wouldn’t work, and then we’d be really trapped.”

“Besides,
”
added Walt. “Those things upstairs are probably fully reanimated by now. We don’t even know if the vehicles you drove here got fried from the first EMP blast. We have no escape.”

“We’re alive,
”
Wilder said. “There’s always an escape.”

“Shhh,
”
said Cheryl as she brought her finger to her mouth. “Listen. What’s that noise?”

“Fuck me,
”
said Steele. “Is that the elevator?”

They all looked at each other and knew what was coming down the elevator shaft. They scrambled to tr and find a way out..

“We don’t have the time to sort through the computer files and figure out what weapons might help us down here,
”
Butsko said. “Besides, the EMP lab was reserved strictly for EMP research. Unfortunately, I think we exhausted that avenue.”

“So are we just gonna wait here for those fuckers to reanimate next door?
”
Cheryl asked. “We need to do something.”

Butsko sat down at the computer console and started tapping away on the keyboard.

“Our only option is to fight our way out,
”
said Wilder as he smashed the protective glass on the wall-mounted fire axe.

“Hold on a second,
”
Butsko said. “I want to see something before we run head-on into battle.” Butsko tapped away at the keyboard. “Yes!” he shouted. “My algorithms cracked the security.” Butsko fell silent again as he continued to access the computer. “Something has been bothering me. Do you all remember at the end of this corridor how it splits to the left and the right?”

The others nodded.

“On all the blueprints I accessed when at Fort Hood,
”
Butsko continued, “none of them had a right turn at that corridor.”

“Maybe you just forgot?
”
suggested Cheryl.

Butsko looked up from the monitor, but Wilder cut him off. “Butsko wouldn’t forget such an important detail,
”
he said.

“So maybe the Schoepke family added onto the facility after it was decommissioned,
”
continued Butsko. After a few more minutes of searching through files, Butsko found what he was looking for.

“Got it!
”
Butsko almost shouted. The others gathered closer around the computer console. “Holy shit,
”
Butsko said as the blueprints came up on the screen. “They didn’t just add on to the existing facility,
”
he said as he pointed to the screen. “They built an entire new facility underneath the one we’re in.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,
”
Wilder said. “You mean to tell me that underneath us is another facility that’s secure?”

“It looks that way,
”
Butsko answered. “It seems the Schoepke’s were up to even more no good activities than the government thought. This new facility wasn’t in any of the files the government kept on the Schoepke’s.”

“What the hell were they up to down here?
”
Wilder asked.

“I don’t know,
”
said Butsko, “but we’re going to find out.
”
The others looked at him intently. “The only way to get to the new facility is to go through the new lab in Section C.”

12

Walt, Wilder, Butsko, Cheryl, and Steele scoured the lab and looked for anything that could be used as a weapon.

As they explored, they realized that this lab had also been used mainly for storage. Butsko figured the Schoepke’s had moved all their serious research to the newly built Section C.

Wilder brought over gallon containers of drain cleaner and bleach, as well as various sized glass jars and plastic vials. Butsko found some Styrofoam cups and drained the gasoline out of a few back-up generators. Butsko put a dozen or so cups in the gasoline and stirred them around.

Wilder filled the glass jars with bleach and filled the plastic vials with the drain cleaner. He then placed the plastic vials into the glass jars and sealed them up.

After the Styrofoam had all but dissolved in the gasoline, Butsko took the remaining glass jars Wilder had found and made Molotov cocktails with the Styrofoam goop in the bottom of each jar.

“What the hell did the two of you just make?
”
Walt asked.

“We both made bombs,
”
Wilder explained. “My bomb will blind and suffocate those bastards. The plastic vials are filled with drain cleaner, which are slowly eating away at the thin plastic. When the drain cleaner hits the bleach, it’ll create a poisonous chlorine gas that’ll attack the membranes in the eyes, throat, and nose. When we were out there in the small, enclosed hallway I noticed the ventilation was for shit. This will dissolve those bastards
’
lungs and eyeballs.”

The others stood there and looked wide-eyed at Wilder.

“This had an added bonus,
”
continued Wilder. “Not all the hydrochloric acid will react with the bleach, so the acid will burn those fuckers and anything else they brush against.”

“I made some Molotov cocktails with an extra surprise,
”
Butsko said. “The semi-dissolved Styrofoam goop is like napalm. It’ll burn and stick to anything it touches. The yellow-eyed creatures won’t be able to get it off their skin or clothes.”

“I’m really glad you guys are on our side,
”
Cheryl said.

“I’m going first,
”
Wilder said. “I’m going to exit into the main corridor and throw one or two of these chlorine bombs down towards the elevator. It’ll affect the zombies almost immediately, so the rest of you will need to get to Section C as quickly as you can before the gases reach us.”

All five of their heads turned to the direction of the elevator as they heard it descend.

“Sounds like those bastards are bringing in backups,
”
Steele said. “I bet they aren’t too happy about that EMP blast, either.”

“Let’s go, everyone!
”
Wilder barked. “Time is not our friend right now.”

13

Underground Facility, Schoepke Springs

Section C

Fi and two other yellow-eyed creatures were guided by something to the right lab. Section C was a cavernous area filled with many doors leading to a maze of rooms and laboratories, but Fi knew exactly where to go. The object Fi had been searching for was close—so close, in fact, that they all felt its pull. The object—The Discovery—was acting like a beacon, and Fi and the others couldn’t ignore it.

Not that Fi or the others wanted to.

The warmth that filled her body was the most incredible feeling she had ever experienced since her change. She remembered everything with such clarity now and had a good idea what was inside her. Her father had infected and killed her. She attached no emotional baggage to that memory. It was just something that had happened. Her father wasn’t to blame. That early virus had compelled him to infect and eat anything that wasn’t already infected. Just like the animals before him, her father had acted on the pure instinct of the bio-nanotechnology that had coursed through his system.

But the virus wasn’t content. The infected were eating too much, and oftentimes didn’t leave behind enough of a body to reanimate. Infected humans with no brains or legs were useless to the virus.

So it changed.

The virus altered itself to create stronger and smarter creatures like Fi. Fi had been the first of this new breed, but had been so new that the changed virus caused her great pain. It burned and made the host angry for not understanding the new purpose the virus was after. It changed the color of the host’s eyes in order to instill fear in the uninfected human beings. The yellow eyes also helped the new breed of creatures identify each other, and it was a warning to the other, lesser-infected hosts:

Don’t fuck with the yellow-eyed creatures.

Don’t fuck with progress.

The mutated virus still wanted to infect and create more yellow-eyed creatures, and it understood the need of the creatures to feed. But there was something more, and Fi was about to find that out as soon as she found The Discovery.

14

Wilder crashed through the laboratory door and threw two of the chlorine bombs toward the elevators. The drain cleaner had eaten through the thin plastic and mixed with the bleach to create a caustic gas that affected the zombies instantly.

The zombies clawed at their eyes and held their throats as the fumes burned them on the inside. Wilder watched the creatures succumb to the fumes and even smiled at the few whose skin was being eaten away by the hydrochloric acid. Wilder was relieved they were being affected by the chlorine bombs at all.

Zombies breathe
? he asked himself.
Who knew
? He had no time to linger on that thought. Wilder knew they had to move quickly.

Just as Walt, Butsko, Cheryl, and Steele ran out of the lab toward Section C, Wilder heard the elevator arrive. As the large door opened, Wilder saw the faces of twelve more zombies and quickly threw two more of the chlorine bombs down the hallway.

Before he could turn to join the others, Wilder felt something whiz past his head. Butsko also heard the elevator and threw one of the Molotov cocktails with the homemade napalm in it. The glass jar shattered against the wall and splattered its fiery contents on three of the zombies. Butsko didn’t wait to see the results and threw another jar towards the horde. Four more zombies caught fire, and the dissolved Styrofoam stuck to them like glue and melted away their skin.

“Let’s move!
”
Butsko yelled. “We don’t want to be here when the fumes reach this point!”

Walt led the charge down the corridor and didn’t hesitate as they reached the “T
”
at the end of the hallway. Cheryl was right behind Walt and crashed into him when he suddenly stopped.

In front of them stood four yellow-eyed creatures, and they looked angry. Walt took down the lead zombie and pulled Stevie out of the creature’s head just as Cheryl thrust the crowbar straight through the second zombie’s forehead. The edge went right between the eyes, and lodged itself right above the creature’s nose.

“I’m stuck!
”
Cheryl yelled.

Steele ran past Walt, slammed the sledgehammer into the third zombie, and knocked it into the last creature. As the two zombies stumbled back, Steele advanced on them and crushed the first zombie’s head. The dead weight of the creature pinned the fourth one to the ground. Walt walked over to it and finished it off by crushing its head.

Wilder and Butsko rounded the corner and saw the bodies.

“Is everyone okay?
”
Wilder asked. He three nodded, and he told them that both the homemade napalm and chlorine bombs had worked.

“By now those fuckers have probably mutated again and evolved fire-proof skin and iron lungs,
”
Steele said.

“There’s a shitload of doors down here,
”
Cheryl said. “Which will take us to the entrance of the new underground facility?”

“It’s not far,
”
Butsko said. The group continued to run down the corridor. “It’s an absolute maze in this new section, but we need the last door on the left, and then we go straight through that lab,
”
Butsko explained. “There’s a large hatch door on the floor that will take us to the next level down.”

As they ran down the corridor, they heard the zombies as they chased after them. They were right on their trail.

Wilder couldn’t help but wonder what was behind all the doors they ran by. What kinds of secrets did those doors hide? Nothing in the facility suggested the Schoepke family was researching or experimenting with any dangerous bioweapons. There was no safety gear or other necessary equipment to handle such dangerous microbes. Wilder knew, though, that there was something dangerous in Section C. He could feel it in his bones. His instincts buzzed in his ear as he ran passed the doors.

There’s something down here that Josef Schoepke wanted to keep hidden away from the world
, Wilder thought.
Not even the government caught wind of whatever it was that Josef stowed away down here
.