Suzanne Robb - Contaminated - A Zombie Survival Novel

Arthur took on the mantle of group leader, unwanted as it was, but since it was only Smith, it didn’t really matter. He tried to keep an eye open in case Benson popped up, but figured the guy was out saving himself, to hell with the rest of them.

“Arthur, what do you think we need to worry about on this floor?” Smith asked him.

He stayed his hand on the knob and wondered. “I really have no idea, Dixon didn’t either. Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it.” He smiled in order to reassure her, but knew he failed.

Then he asked himself why he cared, he didn’t trust her after the Dixon incident. Hell, he didn’t trust anyone. For all he knew, the whole lot of them were working for outside sources and he was the dimwitted scientist in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The handle twisted and he pulled open the door to reveal Level 11 as slowly as possible. The lights in the room were bright and arranged in neat lines along the ceiling. Inside were rows and rows of mainframes taller than he was and almost as wide. Most had smoke rising from them, and he was thankful for the first time that he had something on to protect himself from the toxic fumes.

A soft glow came from several spots along the ceiling and Arthur assumed it had something to do with the computers systems, or more likely the security measure. As he held the Sig in front of him, he eyed the panels. Dixon mentioned they would have shut down and erased all data so anyone who broke in with the express purpose of stealing their secrets would have done it in vain. Arthur asked himself again what type of people he was working for. Security measures, protecting their information to the extreme, sure no one liked their stuff hacked, but it happens.

His thoughts went back to the lights and he wondered about the ones glowing softly. Arthur stopped to listen when they reached a blind corner. The last thing he wanted was to be taken by surprise. With a quick move, he peered around and saw a contaminated hunched over the body of someone in a black suit.

Slurping sounds and other sucking noises came his way and Arthur forced his stomach to calm. He glanced around the corner once again and saw another contaminated a few feet away holding a head in his lap and sticking its fingers in eye sockets to get at the grey matter inside. Arthur didn’t know if they took down two people or decapitated one, but didn’t want to look at the grisly scene any longer. No matter how much he saw today, he would not become desensitized to it, to do so would be handing over his humanity, and at this rate, that was the only thing he had left.

Arthur moved back and put a finger to his lips, Smith nodded. Arthur stepped out and aimed carefully. The one closest, hit the ground with a slam, as the rounds exited through its forehead. The second one didn’t lift its head from the meal in its lap, unconcerned with anything but the gooey goodness, it reached further inside the skull.

Another round, and another contaminated on the ground. Arthur moved forward wondering why someone was suited up in here. He shone his light up and down the aisles, and in crevices until he was sure nothing lurked in the shadows.

“Benson must have raced through here,” Smith said.

Arthur nodded, but didn’t think so. The lights on some of the panels blinked and were clean of dust in some areas as if someone had used them recently. Arthur went to one and tried to access the menu. Once more, he faced the dreaded C: prompt and got nothing in return. Whatever the man did concerned him, but what was more worrisome was the trap awaiting them on the next level. The one on this level hadn’t gone off or Benson knew how to turn it off. If that was the case, they owed him one for not turning it back on and screwing them over. Arthur decided to call them based on what Benson did to Dixon.

He examined the server and realized heavy coated wires went into the ceiling and then into the walls up to another set to back up the information on. At first, he thought two rooms was overkill, but after seeing all the samples and experiments they were doing, he wondered if there wasn’t a third room hidden somewhere. Of course, the wires might lead to somewhere on the surface as well, Arthur didn’t believe for a second that Sunset Inc. would be running these kind of experiments and willing to erase the data in an emergency. A scientist always keeps a backup, and a backup of their backup.

“Let’s get out of here.” Arthur started walking toward the door when Smith tugged on his arm.

Arthur slowed down and stared at her with a questioning look. She pointed and he followed the direction of her arm. Off in the corner a man in a suit huddled against the wall. He seemed unaware of their presence rocking back and forth, as he mumbled.

Smith, on her way over tried to get his attention by using a calm assertive voice. Arthur jogged to catch up, not sure what to expect, after what the man had been through. Chances were high he’d react with violence of some kind.

“Careful, he’s in shock.” Arthur skidded to a stop next to Smith as she laid a hand on the man’s shoulder.

He twisted violently and then stopped as he pulled off his mask. “Are you here to help me? The others went crazy. I was just cutting through to get to the labs and there was an explosion--”

Arthur interrupted the mile a minute rambling of the man. “Put your mask back on, we’re pretty sure whatever’s happening to everyone is airborne.”

The man stared at his mask, then over at the bodies. Tears formed in his eyes as he dropped it to the floor. “It’s too late for me, you should kill me now. I don’t want to live after what I saw. They ripped his head clear off. They moaned like they were in pain and then…and then they started eating him.”

The man closed his eyes and Arthur noted the tag on his suit read Jones. “Look, Jones. I know you’re scared, but we’re not about to kill you for the hell of it. Not to mention you can help us. There’s supposed to be some sort of trap on this floor, do you know what it is?”

Jones kept his head down as he answered, “Yeah, it was set off by those things. Some sort of gas, that’s why I threw on my mask. Otherwise, I would have been infected like them.”

Arthur knelt next to the man. Jones’s face was paling in the dim light and the energy in him diminishing by the second. “Jones, can you tell me what kind of tests they’ve been doing here? Human trials? Something that could have caused this to happen?”

Jones jerked his head at the barrage of questions. “They told us it was for the benefit of mankind. That we’d be making history. My specialty was in cancer research. They gave my assistant and me a lab, some unique compounds, and told us to get to work generating formulas. I thought I was making the right decision, until--”

“Until what?” Arthur grabbed the man and shook him. Nothing happened.

“Arthur, back up,” Smith warned.

“What? He has answers, answers I need!” Arthur yelled.

“Back the hell up, now.”

Arthur turned his head in time to avoid the first globs of blood mixed with other fluids expelled by Jones. Seconds later, he convulsed on the floor and then moved no more. Smith fired her Walther P99 into the doctor’s head and walked away.

“How long did it take for him to get infected?” Arthur asked.

Smith turned on him with angry eyes. “Does it matter? This crap is in the air. If we open the hatch up top, we’re going to be releasing it into the world. We have an obligation to protect them. We should stay here.”

Arthur wanted to argue. Tell her she was wrong. But he knew the truth. All they could do was try to gather as much information as possible, though he was only kidding himself by doing that. An activity to keep him distracted from counting down the minutes until his mask crapped out and let in the contaminant.