Shaun Harbinger: Lightning: Fighting the Living Dead

“Here’s the situation, Alex. I can’t send you alone to Site Alpha Two; you wouldn’t stand a chance on your own. And as you say, if I let your friends go with you, I can’t guarantee that they’ll come back with the H1. If the mission got too tough, they might just abandon it. That would leave you and me in the shit where Kate and Lucy are concerned. I can’t take that chance.”

“So what are you going to do to make sure they return?” I asked, thinking I already knew the answer. He was going to keep one of us here, so that the others had to come back to collect them. Hart had probably guessed that we were a tight knit group and wouldn’t abandon each other. “If you keep someone here,” I said, “you’ll reduce the number of people going on the mission by one, and also reduce our chance of success.”

“No, nothing like that,” he said. “I’m not going to keep any of you hostage. You’ll all be going to Site Alpha Two. And I can guarantee that you will do everything you can to get the chemical and return.” He stood up, went to the door, and knocked once.

A middle-aged man in a white lab coat entered. In his hands, he held a syringe filled with a pale blue liquid.

“Before you go to the mainland,” Hart said, “we’re going to inject you with the virus. You and your friends have all been vaccinated, so it won’t kill you and bring you back as zombies. You’ll have four days before you turn into hybrids, the same as Kate and Lucy. The only way you can stop that from happening is by bringing the H1NZ1 here so we can make the antivirus to stop the change.”

The guy in the lab coat removed the plastic cap that protected the syringe’s needle.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “You’ve seen what happens to people who are changing into hybrids. They get sick and helpless. We can’t get the chemical if we’re like that.”

The scientist nodded. “That’s what happens when a vaccinated person gets bitten by a zombie. This is different.” He held up the syringe. “It’s a pure strain of the virus that doesn’t react violently with the vaccine in your system. You won’t get sick. The change will be gradual. It won’t make you ill until the fourth day.”

“So you’ll have three days to get the H1NZ1, and get back here,” Hart added.

“But you know I’ll come back,” I protested. “I won’t leave Lucy. You don’t need to inject me with anything.”

Hart shrugged. “Well if you’re planning to come back anyway, then what’s the difference?”

“Have the others agreed to this?” I asked. I’d always hated needles but knowing that this one contained the virus that turned people into monsters made me fear it.

Hart laughed mirthlessly. “Of course not. They didn’t have a choice. I had to have them held down while they were injected. I was hoping that, given your circumstances, that wouldn’t be necessary with you.”

I had no choice. If I didn’t agree to be injected, they’d force it on me anyway. And like Hart said, I was planning on coming back here with the H1NZ1, so what was the difference? I looked at the scientist. “Do it.”

He came forward, lifted the sleeve of my T-shirt, and pushed the needle into my shoulder muscle. I winced and drew in a sharp breath. He pressed the plunger on the syringe, and I felt a stinging sensation spread through my arm.

When he was done, the scientist left the room.

“Good,” Hart said, smiling. “Now, time is of the essence. So, let’s go and meet your friends and plan how we’re going to get that chemical.”

“No,” I said. “I want to see Lucy first.”

He gave me a thin-lipped smile. “Of course.”

THE FACILITY’S hospital was modern and well equipped. Like all hospitals, the wards smelled of disinfectant, and there was a constant bleeping from various machines that were hooked up to patients.

Hart led me past the main ward to a small corridor where the doors were all closed and, I assumed, locked. He pointed to a window. I looked through it to see Lucy lying in a hospital bed. She was lying, curled up, beneath the sheets. There were no machines attached to her, no drips, and no tubes. None of those things would do her any good. The only thing that could save her now was the antivirus.

Hart was looking into the window of the room next to Lucy’s. There was a woman in there lying in exactly the same curled-up position as Lucy.

“My wife, Kate,” Hart said.

I nodded.

“I’m relying on you, Alex,” he said.

“Don’t worry. I’ll get that chemical.”

“Okay. Now, let’s go and discuss that with the others. We need to get started as soon as possible.”

I followed him along the corridor. I didn’t want to leave Lucy here but I was acutely aware that I had a ticking time bomb running through my veins that had to be defused.

If I didn’t get the H1NZ1 back here from the mainland in time, that bomb was going to blow, and it would mean the end of everything.

THE OTHERS WERE WAITING in a large lecture hall, all of them sitting on the front row of seats like the most attentive students in the world. The fact that we all had the virus in our systems was definitely motivating; Hart had been right about that. I took a seat next to Johnny. He turned to me with an accusing look in his dark eyes. Tanya, Sam, and Jax just ignored me.

They probably blamed me for the situation we found ourselves in, but I hadn’t forced them to come to Apocalypse Island. In fact, I’d told them I should come alone, so I refused to be held responsible for any of this.

Hart took the stage, and as he did so, the lights in the room dimmed. A large screen came to life, displaying a photograph of a building identical to the one we were in now, except that the five-story building on the screen was located in a fenced-in compound, and beyond the fence, rolling green hills were visible.

“This is Site Alpha Two,” Hart said. Unlike Alpha One, where we are now, Alpha Two is on the mainland. It’s in a remote area of the Scottish highlands. A fifteen-foot-high fence protects the facility, with razor wire running along the top. The security there was high level, as it is here.

“When we flew over the site a week ago, we ascertained that the fence had been compromised in some places, and that there were no signs of life inside the compound.”

The screen changed, showing a blueprint of corridors and rooms. “This is the fourth floor of the building. The lab at the end of this corridor is where you are most likely to find the H1NZ1. This is where the chemical was synthesized. There may also be a supply of the chemical in the storeroom here.” He pointed to a different room on the blueprint. “We’ll provide you with maps of every floor, as well as weapons. We want you to have the best chance possible of retrieving the H1NZ1 and bringing it to the rendezvous point.”

The screen showed an overhead satellite image of the area, Site Alpha Two no more than a small box on the terrain. “This area here,” Hart said, indicating a point that looked like it was a couple of miles from the building, “is where we’ll land the chopper to drop you off. We can’t land any closer to the building, because the noise of the helicopter will attract all the zombies from miles around. You’ll have enough to deal with inside the building; there’s no point attracting more to the area. So you’ll exit the chopper here, and remove yourselves from the location quickly.

“When we pick you up, we’ll use this helipad to the north of the facility. It was used to transport staff from one site to another. We can’t wait for long in the pick-up area because the noise of the helicopter will bring all the zombies our way. We’ll be there at 1300 hours on Tuesday. Today is Sunday, so that will give you plenty of time to locate the chemical and get back to the rendezvous point, and also means that you’ll get back here long before the virus in your blood has a chance to do anything to you. The noise of the helicopter will bring any zombies in the area our way, so when I say 1300 hours, I don’t mean 1305, or even 1302. Be there on time for all our sakes.”