The six students froze. Even May paused for a moment to glance over her shoulder at the man before redoubling her efforts to open the final vat.
The guard looked sideways down the hall, then back at them, all the while slowly backing up.
“Just close the door,” Leah encouraged him. “Pretend we’re not here. Honestly, you’ll probably just get eaten if you stay.”
His eyes bulged and it was clear he didn’t intend to take her suggestion. “I found the zombies,” he called over his shoulder. “All six of ‘em, right here.”
“What’s happening?” Brian demanded. He was laying on the ground against the back wall.
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Clarissa said. She was fumbling with her matchbook, trying without success to light a match. She cursed. “I need to get better matches. These things burn out too fast.”
The guard in the doorway stepped back to allow his comrades entrance to the room. There were about a dozen of them in total, though only half were appreciably prepared, equipped with gas masks and syringe guns.
The sight of these weapons was the only thing that kept Noah rooted in place. Not a single guard was infected, and every second that ticked by drained him of a little more energy, replacing it with a persistent and growing hunger.
As the security force was entering the room May finished unscrewing the top of the sixth vat, and dust came streaming out like steam from an uncovered pot of some terribly burned stew. Most of it wafted towards the pendant, but a fair quantity escaped past her and spread rapidly through the room. A few of the guards stared at the dark plumes and began muttering to each other.
Dammit, half of them are going to end up infected, Noah realized unhappily.
A voice came from within the ranks like a bucket of ice water, dousing the murmurs. “Shut up.”
Noah glanced at his friends. “Is that…?”
“Move aside,” the voice spoke again.
The guards divided down the middle, stepping away to reveal Heinrich standing at their center. He wore a bulky respirator mask that concealed his lower face. Clutched in his hands was an entirely blue, cordless chainsaw with the Insight logo plastered across its chassis.
The doctor cleared his throat. “Well, this is disappointing.”
“Do you actually live in this building?” Leah demanded. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same,” Heinrich said calmly. “You have damaged Insight property.”
“Is that what you call it when your employees get murdered?” Leah asked acidly.
Heinrich frowned. “I am referring to your tampering with the containment vats.” He suddenly noticed what Clarissa held in her hands, and his eyes bulged. “Drop the matchbook.”
When Clarissa ignored him, he gestured to the guards around him. Half a dozen pistols were suddenly pointed at the girl.
Clarissa went still, a startled expression crossing her face. She slowly looked up at Heinrich. “You- you think bullets will keep me down?”
“Enough damage kills anything.” The doctor smiled. “The dust can only heal so much. And if bullets aren’t enough, I brought a chainsaw.”
“What happened to the doctor’s oath?” Noah muttered.
Heinrich tilted his head, amused. “I’m not that kind of doctor.”
Clarissa waved the matchbook around. “What’s got you so worked up about a single match, anyway?”
“Don’t feign ignorance. We are both aware of why you are here.”
“I’m not sure why you’re just standing here talking to us, then. Every moment you wait, more of your precious dust leaks away.”
“It can be recollected,” Heinrich said, though a look of doubt flickered across his face. He must have finally noticed that the dark haze hovering about the room was gradually clearing, drifting in lazy wafting clouds towards the pendant exposed on May’s neck.
“What is that?” Heinrich muttered, peering intently forward. “What do you have there?”
“She’s got nothing,” Leah snapped, stepping in front of her friend. “Mind your own business.”
May looked down at the pendant in surprise, clutching at it. She tucked it beneath her shirt collar, halting its invisible, unexplainable pull, but its purpose had already been made apparent to everyone in the room. There was no dust left in the air, and it wasn’t because Clarissa had managed to ignite a match.
Heinrich turned his agitated gaze to the guard at his left. “Blind the girl and bring me her necklace.”
Before the selected man could step forward, a dull metallic knock suddenly sounded from the rear of the room. Everyone paused.
“What now?” Heinrich demanded, narrowing his eyes.
The students were silent.
“Look behind that vat,” the doctor ordered, pushing another two guards forward. “I believe we may have a seventh wayward child on our hands.”
The three members of Insight’s security force approached the sixth vat, May momentarily forgotten. The students took a few steps away, giving the guards plenty of space.
Noah’s eyes widened in unexpected understanding; he suddenly knew exactly what had caused the sound. He watched the unfortunate guards stride obliviously towards the metal monoliths. Dust no longer streamed from any of them, and they stood empty and still.
Before any of the three guards could get close enough to peer around the vat, a second muffled bang came from it and a hand suddenly appeared, reaching up to grip the lip of the container from within. Following the hand came a head covered with a dense map of dark twisting lines. It rose up into view with agonizing slowness, revealing a face twisted with unnatural hunger.
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“What is that?” Leah cried, stumbling away in alarm.
I really should’ve thought the hiding spot for that doctor through, Noah thought, feeling faintly embarrassed for his oversight.
“Carl?” One of the guards standing before the vat tilted his head in recognition.
The second one, displaying far superior situational awareness, grabbed her fellow and pulled him away.
“Well, wouldn’t you know it,” Heinrich said thoughtfully. “So this is where the man ended up. And here I thought he was skipping shifts.”
Looking up, he called out to the guards, “Blind the creature. It is not Carl, and it is not human. It is a corpse being puppeted by the primitive mind-construct of the dust.”
Noah stared at the doctor. How does he know that?
The being that was once Dr. Carl pulled itself from the vat and tumbled out to land in a discombobulated heap on the floor. Noah was intrigued to see that all of the wounds he had inflicted on the man before his death had been healed; if not for the dark web that ran beneath every inch of his skin, his neck would have been unblemished. He looked almost like a normal human, or perhaps one who had arbitrarily decided to scribble over themselves with a black marker. The expression was the only indication that something was truly wrong.
The creature landed awkwardly, and so the three guards approached it with ill-considered confidence, needled weapons bristling at the ready. And then the creature moved.
They had no chance to react. In the span of a second, the closest guard had been eviscerated and thrown against the wall. The creature now stood in the man’s place with a piece of his stomach clutched in its hands. It chewed rapidly on its prize, like a rabbit with a carrot, and gazed unblinkingly at the remaining guards.
Noah was suddenly very, very glad he and his friends were infected.
“Ah, of course,” Heinrich said. “It has been steeping in dust for about twelve hours. It will have elevated physical abilities, though it should soon begin to lose its strength. If it stops eating, that is.” As he spoke he edged backwards to stand behind the formation of guards.
“Shoot it,” he commanded. Six pistols fired, and the creature fell backwards. One of the two remaining guards standing nearby seized the moment to dart bravely forward, syringe gun bared, but the creature reacted before it could be impaled. The woman suddenly found her hand trapped in an iron grip. She could only watch as the tranquilizing gun was plucked away from her and crushed into broken metal. The creature uncurled its fist, letting the pieces clatter to the ground, and then simply leaned forward to bury its teeth into the woman’s shoulder.
The other guard tried to take advantage of the creature’s distraction, approaching it from behind. Before he could get into striking range, the creature spun around, wielding the body of the first guard like a club and striking the second man with enough force to send him flying across the room. He hit one of the vats with a hollow clang and collapsed in an unmoving heap to the ground.
“What’s happening?” Brian asked again.
“Zombie,” Noah answered. “Er, it’s the guy I ate yesterday. I probably could have hidden him in a better spot, now that I'm thinking about it.”
“No, this is excellent. Has he eaten Heinrich yet? Can we leave?”
“No,” Heinrich snapped, his voice carrying from across the room.
“Aw, shucks,” Brian muttered.
The zombie turned its attention to the remaining guards.
“This is our chance,” Clarissa murmured. She stepped over to Brian and scooped him off the ground in a fireman’s carry.
“Wait, now?” Leah said in surprise. “There’s still like ten remaining people over there!”
“Trust me,” she insisted. “This is our best shot.”
And so all six of them fell into step behind the creature, using it like a shield as it crept towards Heinrich and his security force. The only weapon the guards possessed that could truly take any of them out of commission were the syringe guns, and since these were close-range tools, the guards would have to approach the creature if they wanted to have a chance to attack. Quite understandably, they did not seem eager to do so.
“Blind the kids!” Heinrich shouted. “Blind all of them now!”
“How about you try, Doc,” one of the guards muttered. Nobody moved.
The zombie suddenly darted forward. The entire formation of guards broke apart like a school of fish dividing around a shark, and Heinrich dove to the floor alongside everyone else.
One poor guard, just a little too slow to move, found himself the target of the creature’s attention. Though it was perhaps slightly slower now than when it had first emerged from the vat, it still easily outpaced the man’s pathetic attempts to escape, and the guard was disemboweled within moments.
“Don’t let it eat you!” Heinrich snapped. “It won’t get weaker if it keeps eating!”
“I don’t think they’re getting eaten on purpose,” Leah said as she swept by. The way to the door was now clear; none of the guards were willing to stand and make themselves a target to the creature. The six students hurried eagerly forward.
The creature stood amidst the flattened forms of the guards, absorbed in its meal. Noah suddenly noticed a man, laying almost motionlessly by the creature’s feet, slowly beginning to reach for the creature’s ankle. A syringe gun was primed in his hand.
Noah slowed to a halt despite himself. “Move!” he yelled, startling his friends, but the creature didn’t- couldn’t- acknowledge him. The needle pierced the creature’s lower leg, right through the cuff of its blue scrub pants. For a few seconds it didn’t react, chewing unheedingly on whatever piece of the last guard it had managed to snag, and then it simply dropped to the ground.
“No!” Leah groaned, seeing it fall. “What an idiot!”
They were nearly to the door, but it was still too far away. The security force began to pick themselves off the ground. Five syringe guns remained between them; perhaps if they made a sudden dash towards the exit, one of them would make it out, but Noah knew they weren’t going to take that chance. They halted before they could come into range of the guards blocking the door.
“Very good,” Heinrich said slowly. Noah heard an odd humming sound, and it took him a moment to realize it was the chainsaw coming to life. The doctor raised it towards the ceiling with a crazed glint in his eyes. “You don’t deserve the dust you carry,” he began.
“Deserve it?” Leah muttered. “What, like it’s a prize?”
“Oh, but it is,” he nodded, waving the chainsaw back and forth as he spoke. “It will change the course of history. Sickness, injury, almost any affliction that ails mankind, it will all become a thing of the past. Cancer- I’ve cured cancer,” he cackled.
“Yeah, in the most perverted way imaginable,” Leah muttered. “People are going to be eating each other over mundane wounds. You can’t possibly think the dust is going to prevent more suffering than it causes.”
“An unfortunate, yet unavoidable consequence,” Heinrich had to yell to be heard over the chainsaw’s motor. “But I’ll find it awfully hard to care, I think.”
Okay, I knew this guy was the mad scientist to end all mad scientists, but perhaps he’s beginning to lean into that role a bit too hard, Noah mused.
The guards around them were standing awkwardly, syringe guns poised and ready, yet unsure if they should interrupt while the doctor was still talking.
“Oh, just stick them already,” Heinrich said, waving them forward impatiently. “It’ll make my job easier.”
Noah wanted to backpedal as the guards closed in, but there was nowhere to go. What could he do to ten of them? His thoughts went to the pendant. There should be a fair amount of dust in the thing now, made up of whatever leakage it had managed to snag from the vats. There wouldn’t be much, but perhaps it would be enough to overwhelm their foes and escape.
He nearly told May to use it, but then another idea struck him. The guards weren’t the only ones armed with a weapon. Perhaps if he waved it around threateningly enough he could make them hesitate, if only long enough for the six of them to make their exit. Or worst-case, he could always blow everything up. He and his friends would probably survive.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the grenade.