David Bernstein - Machines of the Dead

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” Zaun said. He raised his weapon at the glass but Kevin stopped him, knocking the weapon aside.

“Don’t bother,” the kid said, rapping his knuckles on the glass. “It’s bullet proof; hell, bomb-proof for all I know. You’ll only waste ammo, maybe catch a ricochet.”

“We’ve got company,” Jack told the others.

From the open room at the end of the hall came the undead, the bot-controlled corpses filing into the hall like escaping convicts too doped up to run for it. Now Jack understood why the alarm had gone off-someone had opened the “test-subject” room, which was now a “zombie” containment room.

“Jack,” Kevin said, “Don’t bother. It’s a diversion. We need to get out of here before the guards show up outside C-wing and pin us down.”

Five undead were ambling down the hall, with more coming from the room. Jack wondered how many there were.

“I’ll take care of this,” Zaun said, pulling out his sword after shouldering his M4. “You guys get to the door and make sure we have a clear path to Reynolds’ office.”

Jack nodded and took off with the others. They quickly made it to the exit. Jack slid the card through the card reader. The red light flashed but remained on. He swiped it again, slower, thinking maybe he’d moved it to fast, but the red light remained on.

“It’s not working,” he said.

“It has to be the alarm,” Kevin said, looking back down the hall. “We have to get that door shut.”

Turning around, Jack watched as Zaun moved like a seasoned-swordsman from some martial arts horror film, as limbs and heads flew from bodies. With the alarm blaring and Zaun busy, there was no way Zaun would hear him yell to shut the door.

“It’s too loud for him to hear us,” Kevin said, as if reading Jack’s thoughts. “I’ll be right back; you guys get that door open.”

Jack watched Kevin run down the hall as Zaun decapitated a tall male zombie, the last of the undead. He hoped with all he had that shutting the door would turn off the alarm and let them exit C-wing.

“Jack, be ready to start blasting,” Maria warned. “We might have company on the other side of this door. ” He nodded, watching Kevin pass by the room Reynolds had ducked into when the man opened the door, poked his arm out, gun in hand, and fired at Kevin.

“No!” Jack screamed. Kevin fell forward to the floor as if an invisible force had shoved him. Jack bolted down the hall, yelling for Maria to keep her gun pointed at the door Reynolds was behind.

He ran passed the room, Maria telling him she had him covered.

Kevin wasn’t moving. Jack rolled him over and saw the blood, all the blood. The floor was slick with the stuff and Kevin’s jacket had a huge, ragged hole in it. Jack tore open the kid’s jacket and lifted his shirt, revealing a ghastly, gory, exit wound.

“Jack,” Kevin said, coughing up blood.

“Damn it.”

“Sorry.”

“There’s no need for that. We’re going to get you out of here.”

Kevin smiled, his teeth glistening red. “There’s no way I’m leaving here… at least not alive.”

Jack thought about the bots; if they could somehow save Kevin’s life, but there was no time.

“I can save him, Jack,” came Reynolds’ voice from the speaker next to the room’s door. “Give him to me and maybe, just maybe he’ll live.”

Jack felt a tug at his sleeve. He turned to look at Kevin, who was shaking his head. “No, Jack. No.”

“We can leave you with him; let him fix you up, then come back after we get help.” Jack felt like shit for even suggesting the idea, but Kevin was just a kid, beginning his life. He deserved to make it, to get out of the bunker and to a normal life.

Kevin tried speaking, but only coughed up more blood, dark, almost black in color.

“What’s it going to be, Jack?” Reynolds said. “He doesn’t have much time.”

“It’s okay,” Kevin said, grabbing Jack’s hand. “Just make sure.. you… get everyone out.” Jack felt the kid’s grip loosen before his hand fell away. Looking into his eyes, he watched the light go out in them, his head lolling to the side.

Jack closed his eyes. He took a deep breath before opening them again. Reaching up, he lowered Kevin’s eyelids.

He heard Maria tell Zaun to shut the door; that it was keeping them from leaving.

“What’s going on, Jack?” Maria asked.

“He’s dead.”

“What? N o.”

Jack stood, heard the alarm cut off, then walked over to the intercom. Pressing the button, he said, “I’m going to make sure you never leave this place.”

“Jack, this isn’t the time,” Maria said. “We need to leave.” She looked at Reynolds, then spit on the glass. “Puta tu’ madre, bendaho.”

Pressing the button again, Jack added, “I hope you rot in this tomb,” then backed away from the device. Needing some kind of satisfaction, he did the only thing he could think of, pointed the Desert Eagle at the intercom, and blew it to pieces.

“Come on, Jack,” Zaun said, putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder.

“Yeah, we need to leave,” Maria said, her voice cracking.

Jack turned to face Kevin’s corpse. “Not sure how those little fuckers work on an already dead body, but-” he pulled out the Sig, not wanting to obliterate the kid’s head with the magnum, and fired twice, leaving two small black holes in Kevin’s head. “Now we can leave.”

At the exit, Jack asked if there was any way to know if someone was waiting on the other side of the door.

Maria shrugged. “Maybe from one of the offices. I’m sure they monitor the door at times, or at least have a camera there.” She left, entering the closest office, while Jack and Zaun kept an eye on the hallway.

Emerging a moment later, she said, “All clear, but that could change. Camera’s only good for right outside the door.”

Jack slid the card through the reader and watched the green LED come to life. The door clicked and soon the group found themselves standing outside of C-wing. Before closing the door, Jack blew apart the card reader on the inside, then did the same for the reader on the outside.

“That should hopefully prevent Reynolds from leaving, at least without help from the outside.”

They made it to his office. Jack, last in line, was about to enter when he saw a group of guards coming down the hall. They raised their weapons and opened fire, just missing him as he dove inside. Tiny explosions riddled the doorframe as a barrage of bullets bit into the wood, sending splinters everywhere.

Maria ran to the door and returned fire. “Zaun, get over here. Get another gun ready and hand it to me when I tell you to.”

Jack got to his feet and surveyed the room. Not seeing an escape hatch, he hurried over to a bookcase and swung the thing open, knocking a row of books down. A door similar to C-wing’s stood before him, only this one had a keypad attached to it. He hoped it was to use in the event Reynolds’ keycard was lost or broken and not an added security feature.

Gunfire exploded from behind. Jack turned to see Maria firing down the hall, Zaun kneeling next to her, holding an M4.

Jack slid the keycard through the reader and heard a beep, the red LED remaining on. The keypad illuminated, indicating Jack was to punch in numbers. He closed his eyes. The fucking door needed a code.

“There’s a keypad lock on the door,” Jack yelled to the others, over the sound of gunfire.

“Well, you better figure it out,” Maria shouted back, firing off a three round burst. She exchanged weapons with Zaun, who speedily loaded a fresh magazine into the gun he was handed.

“I was hoping you could help with that,” Jack said.