Z-Volution (18 page)

Remington narrowed his eyes, trying to see anything that would give an indication of where exactly these men and women were situated. Raven Rock? That would be Pennsylvania, but maybe it was the alternate bunker, rumored to be somewhere in Missouri. Or else Colorado, possibly?

“…it seems things aren’t going too well there.”

Remington put his hand down at his side, lifting the M5. “No sir, they are not. The Capitol is in flames, and the White House…severely compromised. The whole city…”

“I understand,” the new president said. He leaned in until his face—and those oddly-tinted eyes loomed large on the screen.

“Now listen close, I’ll tell you what I’d like you to do.”

29.

Atlanta, CDC Headquarters

Alex ran up to the outside of the curved glass and steel building with Veronica a few steps behind him, wheeling on her heels as she swept the barrel of her gun across the landscape behind her. He pulled on the big handles of the double glass doors but they didn’t budge. Locked.

He pressed his face up against the glass and looked inside to the lobby. The receptionist desk was unstaffed, potted plants knocked over, their dirt marring the white tile floor. A dead security guard, bullet hole smack in the middle of his forehead, lay sprawled in the middle of the room. Alex saw no one…or no thing…living. He took a step back and looked up at the towering facade.

Dr. Arcadia Grey was in there somewhere and it was his and Veronica’s job to find her and bring her to the secret lab in Colorado. She was the best chance anyone had at developing an antidote. But how to get in?

“Intercom panel, over there!” Veronica pointed before spinning back around to fire a couple of shots at a distant zombie. Alex ran to the panel. He ran a finger along the directory that accompanied the buttons, seeking Grey’s name…not there, but the Inquiries option was available.

He depressed the button and heard a ridiculously pleasant-sounding chime given the circumstances. Waited for an answer. After nearly a minute during which he hit the button several times, he was about to give up and try some other buttons to see if he could reach anyone, when a tired-sounding female voice issued from the speaker.

“Yes?”

Alex didn’t think that was a proper government employee greeting, but it just went to show how far everything normal had been tossed out the window. He leaned in close to the speaker.

“Doctor Grey?”

“Who wants to know?”

He looked back at Veronica, who paused her lookout duties to monitor the conversation. He waved her over and then turned back to the speaker while she ran over to join him.

“My name is Alex Ramirez. I’m here with CIA Agent Veronica Winters. We were ordered here by the president to take you to a research lab in Co—“

“Alex!” Veronica put a finger across her lips, warning him not to divulge the location of the clandestine laboratory. She pulled his finger from the intercom button.

“Who knows who’s listening in or if that’s even her?”

The voice on the other end seemed to sense their concerns.

“Yes, it’s me, Dr. Grey, and I was told to expect you. I know your plans for me, but listen, I can’t leave.”

“Why not?” Alex frowned. Other than the obvious: that maybe she was trapped in there, why else would she fight extraction?

“There’s no point. If I don’t figure this out fast, by the time we get to Colorado and start all over again there, it might be too late. For all of us. The things I need…they’re all here.”

Veronica stepped up to the intercom. “Doctor Grey, this is Agent Winters. I was told you’d have everything you needed with you in your lab, and you could transport them with us. Is that not the case?”

“That is indeed not the case. I need something else, there’s a chance with the right specimen that I could figure this out here and now.”

“What specimen?”

A pause ensued during which Alex wondered if the researcher was either afraid to say, or not allowed. “A live zombie. Or as alive as that term implies.” She let that sink in for a moment while Alex and Veronica exchanged bewildered stares.

Dr. Grey continued. “Human or dinosaur, whichever you can get. Although I imagine the former would be easier to procure.”

Alex spoke into the microphone while mentally picturing wrestling a crylopholosaur into submission. “Yeah, I vote for the human variety.” But no sooner had he said it than he realized that, too, was extremely problematic.

“Hold on just a minute.” Veronica’s features were twisted into an angry mask. “You expect us to capture one of those disease carrying things and bring it back here?”

Dr. Grey’s reply was quick in coming and earnest in tone. “My research is at a dead end without a live specimen. Believe me, I’m not looking forward to spending time in close proximity to one of them in the lab myself, but that’s what has to be done if I’m put a stop to this thing one and for all. You want in to this place? Come back with a zombie.”

#

“I can’t believe she wouldn’t give us so much as a tranquilizer dart,” Veronica complained. “Or a net-gun, or just a net…something! How are we supposed to catch one of these things?”

She and Alex stood on a downtown street some distance from the CDC building, looking for a zombie to catch alive.

Alex put a hand on her shoulder, an attempt to calm her fraying nerves. “Maybe she doesn’t have any, or maybe drugs would mess up her research. Who knows if tranqs would even work on their messed up physiology? She told us what we have to do. Let’s do it and get out of here.”

Veronica took a deep breath and held his gaze. “Okay. But how? How do we get one of those things back to the CDC building without it being able to bite or scratch?”

Alex took in their surroundings. They stood in a business area with office buildings behind them and in front of them what looked like a retail district with stores and shops. He pointed that way. “Think there’s some stores up ahead. Let’s see if we can find anything useful.”

They set off down the block. It was deserted until they reached the beginning of the storefront section, where they were immediately confronted with four zombies stepping out of an alcove entrance to a woman’s clothing boutique. Veronica gave the first two double-taps to the forehead with her pistol, but one of the other two leapt on her, seeking purchase with its teeth. At the same time, the other one attacked Alex. He gave it a violent kick and it flew back into the alcove where it slumped on the ground, legs at a weird angle. It stayed there, trying to move but unable for the moment to get up.

By the time he could turn his attention to Veronica, she was flat on her back on the ground, kicking the living dead woman off of her. As it stumbled backwards and then steadied itself, preparing for another assault, Alex took aim and put a shot between its eyes. The she-zombie dropped, dead for real. Veronica got to her feet and dusted herself off. Alex wasted no time.

“C’mon, let’s see what’s up here.”

Alex and Veronica made their way down the row of stores. Most of them were clothing, one specializing only in hats. Finally, nearing the end of the block, they found some different types of shops. A now useless Sprint store. A frozen yogurt shop.

“Here we go!” Alex pointed at the last business on the block, a sporting goods franchise.

“Hardly the time for fun and games.”

“Let’s just see what’s in there. I have an idea.”

The store was closed and by the looks of things with no one inside. Alex tried the door. Locked. Peering inside the display window which featured mannequins in various athletic dress, swinging bats and holding footballs, it looked to Alex like the place was left in a hurry but hadn’t yet been looted or the scene of a major battle.

He held his pistol by the barrel and smashed the window with the butt. He kicked away some more of the glass until they could easily pass through. Stepping inside the store, he told Veronica, “Look for anything we might use to keep one from biting and to contain its hands.”

She set off down an aisle, a doubtful look on her face as she glanced at racks of hiking gear—backpacks, water bottles, boots. She stopped in front of one of the packs, shrugged, and put it on. “Nice color. Wonder if they take Discover Card.”

Two aisles over, Alex was checking out the hockey gear: sticks, pucks, pads, and goalie masks.
A helmet
… He took a closer look at them, picked one up. It was a sleek, tapered affair made of heavy-duty plastic with a slick paintjob—long canines on the forehead sticking down and on the chin guard sticking up, giving the impression that the player’s entire face was a gaping maw of doom. The one he chose was a full helmet style and not simply a mask.

He held it up to his face, noting how the chin guard extended up to cover the entire mouth, with a plastic grill covering the face. Even better, a large, clear plastic deflector plate, meant to deflect high speed pucks, covered the entire mouth area.

Perfect
!

He put it on and went to find Veronica. She was wandering the exercise equipment section, and for a brief second Alex felt like they were just an ordinary couple goofing around on a little shopping trip. Then he recalled the purpose of the hockey mask and the moment was gone.

“Hey, check this out!” She turned to look at him and a scream escaped her lips at the sight of him in the mask.

“Don’t shoot! Geez, it’s only me!”

“Damn it, Alex! You scared the crap outta me! As if that doesn’t happen enough, the way things are lately.”

He took the mask off and held it. “Sorry. Just wanted to show you the plan.”

“What plan?”

“This.” He held up the mask to his face and made snapping motions with his teeth by way of explanation.

Realization lit in Veronica’s eyes and a smile took hold. “Not sure how we’ll get it on one’s head, but okay. I’m with you.”

“We just need something for the hands. Keep looking.”

One aisle over, Alex found the baseball stuff. He grabbed two large adult catcher’s mitts and tried them on. They were both lefties but then he found a right-handed glove too and was satisfied that they would prevent a zombie from inflicting serious damage with its hands.

He found Veronica still in the exercise aisle, where she had removed a long section of sturdy elastic from a resistance trainer and showed it to Alex. He nodded.

“Let’s go get our volunteer.”

#

Sporting goods in tow, Alex and Veronica made their way back down the block. Now that they were ready, the street seemed to be devoid of undead, except for a lone crylo shuffling down the road, but they did nothing to incite it and it ambled away, head rooting at the ground. When they reached the woman’s clothing store, Alex looked inside and saw the zombie he had fought with earlier still there in the entrance alcove, along with the lifeless bodies of its three comrades.

“That’s our man.”

Alex studied their target. It roamed around the alcove, apparently confused about how to get out or which way to go, stumbling once over the body of one of its fallen brethren.

“So how are we going to do this?”

“Very carefully.”

“Seriously.”

Alex concentrated on the zombie for a moment longer. “How about I place the gear on it but you hold the arms down? When that’s done, you tie the elastic band around it for a leash.”

Veronica unsheathed her big knife. “Why don’t I just cut the thing’s arms off, then we don’t have to worry about that, at least.”

“Dr. Grey said she wanted the specimen whole. That would mean with hands, and I don’t want to come back and try this all again. Do it right the first time, my grandma always used to say.”

Veronica shrugged. “Whatever. Grey better be able to do something with this thing is all I can say. Let’s get it over with.”

The zombie-fighting duo advanced on the alcove.

They split up, with Alex circling to the rear of the zombie—a tight fit against the storefront window—and Veronica stretched the piece of elastic out in front of her, testing it, looking for an opportunity.

The undead human focused its limited attention on Veronica, swiping at her with its arms. It reached for her, a weird groan coming from deep within its core, but she evaded its contact. Then, as it brought its arms up in another swing, Veronica used both of her own arms to wrap the elastic cord around the zombie’s wrists, trapping them against one another.

At the same time, Alex slammed the hockey helmet down on the dumb brute’s head, mashing it in place.

“Wrap those arms tight!”

Veronica wound the strap around the specimen’s arms a couple of more times, then cinched it tight. Alex pounded the helmet down one more time to make certain it would stay put and then stepped back to admire his handiwork.

Ironically, the mythic beast imagery airbrushed onto the goalie mask, designed to elicit ferocity and to intimidate opponents, was infinitely less scary than the sight of the actual zombie’s face, with its rot, ruin, and general suggestion of just how bad things could really get.

“That’s quite an improvement, right?” Veronica remarked after quickly backing away. A row of gleaming, sharp teeth appeared white and healthy above the undead thing’s real decayed stumps, while a pair of electric blue cat’s eyes stood out in vivid contrast to the zombie’s dull stare.

“Definitely.”

Alex appraised the specimen momentarily. “Okay. Now for the hands.”

Veronica held onto the slack elastic to control the thing’s arms while Alex readied the catcher’s mitt for the right hand. Veronica pulled the zombie’s arms down and Alex kneeled by the hands. The helmeted head of the monstrosity lunged at Alex’s neck, and he could hear it gnashing and slavering behind the mask, but it could not bite.

He slid the baseball glove on its right hand and wrapped a Velcro strap tight.