Machines of the Dead

Chapter 18

Just down the hall was C-wing. Using the keycard, Jack opened the security door. He kept the. 44 magnum at Reynolds’ head.

Two guards, both holding M4’s stood before the group.

“Drop the weapons and stand back,” Jack demanded.

“Do as he says, gentlemen,” Reynolds ordered. “They’ll be leaving us real soon.”

Faces like carved granite, the guards laid down their weapons and stood to the side.

Maria removed the magazines and clips from the guns. The two guards were ushered into a nearby office where their own zip ties were used to subdue them.

Moving down the hall, there was a windowed laboratory on the left. Three scientists surrounded a zombie lying on a steel table. Jack thought the place looked exactly like the operating room in a hospital. The men were so absorbed in what they were doing that Jack didn’t think they even noticed him or the others.

“You’re a sick bastard, you know that?” Zaun said to Reynolds. He walked up to the door and kicked it open. The scientists jumped, startled by the abrupt intrusion.

“You better stop your man from doing anything stupid,” Reynolds warned.

“Zaun,” Jack yelled. “Stop. Let the men work.”

Zaun spun around, his eyes slits. “What?”

“Listen to your friend,” Reynolds said, talking to Zaun. “He understands.”

Zaun came from the doorway, gun out and pointed at Reynolds’ head. “One more word out of you and screw the consequences, you’re dead.”

“Zaun,” Jack said. “He’s right. Whoever’s on that table is dead. There’s no helping him anymore. We need to help the survivors. And as much as I’d like to blow this place sky-high, the work here is essential. Reynolds’ people are the only ones who might be able to stop all this.”

Zaun continued to stare at Reynolds, his cheek muscles flexing as he clenched his jaw.

Jack didn’t like leaving things as they were. He wasn’t sure he was doing the right thing by allowing the experimentations to continue, but to him at least, Reynolds and his team were necessary evils. He knew the man wanted to get control over the situation. N o scientist wanted to be a failure.

Seeing his friend still fuming, Jack reminded Zaun that they were there for the survivors. The dead weren’t going to get any better.

“For the record,” Zaun spat. “This sucks.”

“I’m with you,” Maria said, “but Jack’s right. As much as I hate what this man’s done, he’s needed.” Stepping up to Reynolds, she added, “But don’t think for one second you’re getting away with any of this. I’m going to report you; see to it you’re brought up on humanitarian charges, treason, espionage, and whatever else I can come up with.”

“Amen to that,” Zaun said. He sighed. “Fine, I’m with you all, but if he gets out of line I’m going to pound on his face a little.”

“Agreed,” Jack said. Then to Reynolds, “You hear that, asshole? You’ve got something to live for, to finish your work. So don’t try anything stupid, and as soon as we’re out of here, we’ll let you get back to it.”

The group continued down C-wing, passing by other labs and offices and a few of what appeared to be operating rooms. A number of undead were being poked and prodded, electrocuted, cut up, and whatnot. Jack felt sick at seeing the carnage, but also at seeing the glee and seriousness on the scientists’ faces. He began to shake with anger. Needing to burst, he did the next best thing. Spinning Reynolds around, he punched him in the gut. The man collapsed to the ground, curling up into a ball, coughing.

“What happened?” Kevin asked.

“Sorry. I lost it. Seeing those rooms. W hat he did to those people. H ow he used them… I just needed him to hurt a little. I know he’ll pay for what he’s done. I just couldn’t help it.”

“No problem here,” Zaun said. “Can I have a go? I’ve been dying to do that all night?”

Jack almost laughed, his emotions like a roller coaster.

The hallway grew dim as the overhead lights faded, as if the power were about to go out. A high-pitched alarm chirped. Red lights came on along the ceiling, flashing like the strobes on a police car. A door at the end of the hall opened, the same door where the “test-subjects” were held.

Jack spun around to check behind him. Zaun screamed that Reynolds was getting away. He turned around and saw the man dash into one of the lab rooms. Fuck, the bastard had used the confusion to escape.

Jack ran after Reynolds, but the room’s door was locked. He pounded on it to no avail, meeting Reynolds’ eyes. The mad scientist was grinning as if he was possessed. Two men in white lab coats stood behind him, patting him on the shoulders. The madman’s fellow goons must have sounded the alarm, hoping for a distraction so they could get their leader back. It had worked.

“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.